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Mediagate: the big plot

Zim Independent

Dumisani MuleyaTHE
take-over of private newspapers and running of online publications by the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was an essential part of the state
security agency's strategy to influence political events and Zanu PF's
succession struggle, it has emerged.

The covert media ownership
operation was designed to manage public opinion as social and economic
conditions deteriorated dramatically after the government's chaotic land
seizures and a violent parliamentary election in 2000. Sources said it was
calculated to secure good media publicity and to repair government's
battered image following land grabs and violent
elections.

Intelligence sources said the CIO was shaken by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change's performance in the 2000 general
election and decided to find ways to win back hearts and minds. The CIO was
also anxious to influence the Zanu PF succession struggle.

As a
result a project was hatched to buy into private newspapers and also to
eliminate those which could not be bought. Sources said the strategy was
copied from Angola where the largest circulating daily is owned by the state
security service.

The intelligence agency has wrested control of
Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group, publishers of the Daily Mirror and Sunday
Mirror, and the Financial Gazette through a front ownership
structure.

The CIO also reportedly runs or influences other media
outlets including news websites, a production house, and the
government-owned media.

Sources said the CIO - under former State
Security minister Nicholas Goche - decided in 2001 to buy into private
papers due to political events in the country seen as posing a serious
threat to President Mugabe's regime. The public media was already in the
hands of Information minister Jonathan Moyo.

The sources said Goche
and the CIO reckoned there was no way the Zanu PF faction led by retired
army commander Solomon Mujuru could use the state media to influence events
in the ruling party when Moyo was in charge.

"The takeover of private
newspapers was a CIO strategy to influence public opinion, and hopefully
events in the country, and also manage the dynamics of Mugabe's succession,"
a source said.

"Goche realised it was not possible for his (the
Mujuru) faction to work with Moyo and decided to bypass him in arranging
newspaper takeovers."

The plan largely worked because the Daily
Mirror and Sunday Mirror were deployed to back Vice-President Joice Mujuru
in the run-up to the Zanu PF congress in December last year. They were
unleashed against her rival, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Sources said
this explains why the CIO media project has caused divisions in Zanu PF,
cabinet and government departments because it was designed to serve
factional interests.

Reports say the CIO was behind the closure
of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe titles -- Daily News and Daily News
on Sunday - as well as the Tribune and Weekly Times. They are also
interested in Zanu PF's weekly mouthpiece.

The seizure of
Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard chairman Trevor Ncube's passport last
week is said to be part of the broad strategy to undermine his media house.
Sources said the CIO wanted to force Ncube to leave the country illegally to
attend to his South African business interests.

This would give them
an opportunity to declare him a "fugitive" and then specify him, laying the
ground for the take-over of his papers.

Ncube's passport was seized
by a CIO officer under instructions from Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede
and chief immigration officer Elasto Mugwadi. Mudede and Mugwadi work
closely with the CIO under the Joint Operations Command which brings
security service chiefs together every Friday to discuss security
issues.

Sources say the CIO has been trying to deal with the
Independent and Standard to finish off the mainstream private press in the
country. The media strategy is part of the CIO's broad plan codenamed
Project October.

The plan entails tackling opposition parties and
civic groups and influencing events in Zanu PF and outside using the media.
Journalists and civic society leaders have been recruited to work as part of
the scheme.

Sources said the CIO newspaper takeovers (Mediagate) -
first reported by the Independent on August 12 - were devised to allow state
agents to occupy a vast swathe of opinion space and manipulate the Zanu PF
succession debate.

Insiders say Zanu PF is surviving on the political
quicksands due to support by state security forces who are increasingly
enmeshed in partisan politics.

Remarks on Monday by Major-General Martin
Chedondo at an army pass-out parade in Gweru that soldiers should not
support the MDC provide further evidence of this.

The most brazen
case was on the eve of the 2002 presidential election when former Defence
Forces commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe warned the army would not accept
a winner without liberation war credentials.

The militarisation of
the state bureaucracy and other government institutions has also given the
army a strong hand in politics, while making security agencies the building
blocks to power. The CIO media take-overs complete the grand
plan.

NMB whistleblower demands $33 billion

Zim Independent

Itai
MushekweA WHISTLEBLOWER in NMB Bank's foreign currency case is demanding a
staggering $33 billion from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for his
efforts in providing incriminating evidence against the financial
institution.

In his maiden monetary policy
statement in December 2003 RBZ governor Gideon Gono announced the setting up
of a whistleblower's fund to reward those who provided tangible evidence of
economic crimes resulting in the recovery of monies. There has been
controversy around the scheme as another high-profile whistleblower in the
Mutumwa Mawere case has claimed the RBZ has not paid him.

In the
court papers to hand, Chapfika, who cites the RBZ as the sole respondent,
said the evidence he provided to the central bank met the criteria for
quality information as it mentioned the nature of the crime, being the sale
of foreign currency to unauthorised dealers and named the illegal dealers
and NMB as being the company involved.

He said the information also
mentioned the method of commission of the offence as the externalisation of
funds.

"Acting on the information supplied by the plaintiff," said
Chapfika in the papers, "and pursuant to a meeting between the defendant's
officials, plaintiff and the police details from the Zimbabwe Republic
Police Special Investigations Unit, the police prepared two dockets upon
which NMB Bank Ltd and four of its directors were charged and convicted of
selling foreign currency to an unauthorised dealer without the authority of
the Exchange Control (authorities)," a court document said.

The
bank pleaded guilty to the criminal charges and was fined about $1,4 billion
and an additional sum of US$1,7 million was forfeited to the
state.

Chapfika said the RBZ, by inviting whistleblowers, had entered
into a contract and acting on that offer, he provided quality information
that was not only prosecutable and credible but also led to a
conviction.

He said the RBZ had managed to recover the entire value
involved in the alleged illegal foreign currency transactions.

It
was not clear at the time of going to press whether the RBZ had filed papers
to defend the case.

Inflation clouds festive season

Zim Independent

Grace
Kombora

A CARTOON depicting a worker celebrating his untaxed bonus
only to be stopped dead in his tracks by the level of price increases
reflected on shop shelves graphically illustrates the plight of most
Zimbabwean families.

In biblical terms, government hath given with
the right hand and taken with the left by scaling up the annual bonus
threshold while removing price controls and giving retailers free rein to
hike prices.

Spending power among ordinary Zimbabweans
continues to be eroded as inflation has pushed the prices of basic
commodities beyond the reach of many.

Inflation figures
released last week by the Central Statistical Office triggered apprehension
among consumers at a time of the year when families traditionally spoil
themselves and their loved ones with gifts.

Zimbabwe's
inflation last week nosed up to 502,4% from a previous high of 411%, making
life unbearable for many. Loss in value of the Zimbabwean currency has
created a legion of poor millionaires.

Most families are likely
to face a bleak Christmas.

Holding a blue plastic shopping bag,
Munyaradzi Moyo is deeply worried after paying $2 million for just a few
items.

Moyo (36), a father of four, wonders what the future has
in store for him. He has to budget tightly for his family to get through the
whole month.

With a loaf of bread now costing $50 000, up from
$36 000, his family is unlikely to enjoy this festive
season.

Recently, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) put
the cost of a basket of basic foodstuffs for a family of six at $12,9
million.

"Even if I go shopping with $5 million I return home
with a handful of grocery items for the family," Moyo says.

"I am ever stressed, without the peace of mind that goes with the festive
season," Moyo adds, chagrined by the prevailing situation.

In
Kuwadzana where he rents four rooms, he is often at loggerheads with his
landlord for failure to provide antiseptics for the toilet, because he
cannot afford to buy toilet cleaning material. Even the landlord finds it
hard to buy some.

"It's now a dog eat dog world in
Zimbabwe," Moyo says.

Not only does the issue of antiseptics
sour Moyo's relationship with his landlord, he now has to face regular rent
hikes. He pays $2 million monthly for a room.

In the
recently announced inflation figures, home rentals have surged by 1 164,4 %
on a rise in demand attributed to the bulldozing of urban slums and illegal
structures by President Robert Mugabe's government earlier this
year.

The United Nations says that operation left 700 000
roofless.

Surprisingly, in some shops prices of goods increase
while one stands by the till with the operators telling consumers that
prices have just changed.

"Prices increase by shocking
margins in the time shoppers take to cover the distance from the shelves to
the till," complained Tariro Nyoka.

And although every other
Zimbabwean is now a millionaire, they cannot afford to buy basic goods and
services from the shops.

Shopping is now an ordeal rather than
a pleasure. Consumers now wonder aloud whether they will be able to pay
school fees in January if the rate of inflation continues to rise at its
present pace.

The CCZ says consumers should shop around to
avoid being ripped off by unscrupulous retailers. This will help them get a
fair deal.

Runaway inflation is one of the most visible signs
of an economy in its sixth year of recession marked by severe shortages of
foreign currency, fuel and food widely blamed on government
mismanagement.

Analysts said the latest jump in inflation
dashes hopes that the government can contain inflation to 300% by end of the
month. Although price controls were removed in the recently announced
budget, basic commodities continue to be scarce on
shelves.

International press outcry over passport
seizure

Zim Independent

THE seizure of the passport of owner and publisher of the
Zimbabwe Independent and Standard and leading South African weekly, the Mail
& Guardian, Trevor Ncube, has captured the attention of international
news organisations, which have slammed the action by government as an
attempt to silence dissent.

* International Press Institute director
Johann P Fritz wrote to South African President Thabo Mbeki asking him to
"use your office to raise the issue of press freedom in neighbouring
Zimbabwe at the highest levels of the Zimbabwean government.

"In
particular, IPI calls on Your Excellency to express the concerns of the
South African government and the wider international community at the
confiscation of publisher Trevor Ncube's passport and the growing evidence
that the Zimbabwean government intends to target a list of around 60 people
in the same manner under an amendment to the Zimbabwean
Constitution.

"Given South Africa's modern history of overthrowing
apartheid, and its many brutalities and intimidations, no other country in
Southern Africa is better placed to remind the Zimbabwean government of the
need to uphold fundamental human rights and freedoms, including freedom of
expression."

Ncube recovered his passport this week after making a High
Court application.

* Reporters Without Borders said: "How
repressive can Robert Mugabe's government get before it is called to
account? Zimbabwe is a member of the Southern African Development Community
and is under South Africa's influence, yet it is not threatened with any
coercive measure over its repeated press violations. Action to help
Zimbabweans recover their civil and political liberties is long
overdue."

* World Association of Newspapers president, Gavin O'
Reilly said: "We are seriously concerned that the confiscation of his
(Ncube's) passport may be related to criticism of Zimbabwean authorities
contained in the newspapers he publishes.

"We respectfully remind
you that if this is so, the seizure of Mr Ncube's passport constitutes a
clear breach of his right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by
numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states:

'Everyone has the
right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom
to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media, regardless of
frontier'."

* The Mail & Guardian board chair Prof MW Makgoba
said: "We call on the government of Zimbabwe to urgently return Ncube's
passport to ensure that his freedom of movement is returned to him. We have
no doubt that Ncube is being punished for shining the light of truth on the
rights abuses in Zimbabwe, a country which he loves and of which he is a
son.

"The confiscation of Ncube's passport is yet another step
backward in

Zimbabwe's decline. It is a sad day for Africa and a step
back for the

New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), the
continental programme aimed at lifting our continent high."

*
Print Media SA president Connie Molusi said: "Print Media SA believes that
this action further undermines the principles of freedom of expression and
freedom of the press in Zimbabwe.

"This is a flagrant assault on
the media and freedom of expression .

"We are very concerned that
this action not only interferes with Ncube's rights of free movement as a
citizen, but also restricts his activities as an accomplished publisher of
various newspapers with titles in Southern Africa." - Staff
Writer.

AirZim in debt trap

Zim Independent

Dumisani MuleyaNATIONAL
airline Air Zimbabwe is caught in a serious debt trap which is crippling its
operations and hampering efforts by stakeholders to revive the sinking
carrier.

Air Zimbabwe, now surviving on financial handouts from the
central bank, has a US$14 million debt with $100 billion owing. The debt
crisis has become an albatross around the neck of the airline already
reeling from a number of other problems such as a depleted fleet, failure to
service its routes, poor revenue inflows and mismanagement - mostly by
incompetent political appointees.

Documents in the possession of
this paper show that the Reserve Bank has kept Air Zimbabwe flying by doling
out public funds every month.

Since August the airline has borrowed
US$13 million and £378 591 from the central bank. The money was used largely
to pay Air BP International for fuel, aviation insurance, auxiliary power
unit, and IATA for clearing charges.

Air Zimbabwe has also
received at least $722 billion for working capital and servicing its
overdraft facility with the Jewel Bank from the central bank's Parastatal
Re-orientation Programme (Parp), which started in February.

A report
by the Reserve Bank's Parp division chief Rongai Chizema sent to deputy
central bank governor Nicholas Ncube, dated November 24, on Air Zimbabwe,
says Parp is currently exposed to the tune of $717 billion. It says the
money from the central bank was used to service the carrier's overdraft
facility at Jewel Bank and FBC Bank (formerly First Bank). It was also used
to pay for weekly fuel requirements. Air Zimbabwe now needs about 800 000
litres a week.

Chizema's report, obtained from Air Zimbabwe, says
efforts to revive the airline have not succeeded because of embedded
structural problems at the airline.

"The matters requiring attention at the airline have been
attended to on an ad hoc basis, which is typical of crisis management," the
report says. "Such conditions, if allowed to continue, would jeopardise the
turnaround potential of the airline."

Chizema's report further
says Parp's goal is to stabilise Air Zimbabwe and to reposition its balance
sheet and revive its collapsing operations.

"Parp also seeks to
ensure that revenues and expenses are properly accounted for in order to
portray the correct sate of the financial affairs for the airline at any
given point in time," it says.

It says the short-term challenges
facing Air Zimbabwe which will have an immediate impact on its operations if
unresolved include its failure to bill onward passengers and personal cargo
in United States dollars, non-billing of outward bound passengers for
passenger service charges in US dollars, plying non-performing routes, use
of wrong sets of equipment on domestic and regional routes, non-availability
of financial management systems, lack of cost control systems, and aircraft
flying without an auxiliary unit, something which results in extra fuel
usage and high maintenance costs on international routes.

Air
Zimbabwe, run down through extended periods of mismanagement and
under-capitalisation, now only has eight planes, two of which are non
operational, compared to the 18 planes it had at Independence in
1980.

After scrapping 12 regional routes, the airline still flies to
Johannesburg, Mauritius, Lusaka, Lilongwe and Nairobi. Locally, it flies to
Bulawayo, Victoria Falls and Kariba after pulling out of the Masvingo,
Hwange and Buffalo Range routes. Internationally, it goes to London, Dubai
and Beijing.

As part of a strategy to ensure the airline's recovery,
Chizema's report suggests an overhaul of the management and operations
structures and systems. There have been many meetings between Air Zimbabwe
and government officials of late trying to resolve the airline's
problems.

MDC infighting becomes circus

Zim Independent

Ray MatikinyeREPORTS
this week that one of the rival factions in the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) held a national council meeting that upheld party
leader Morgan Tsvangirai's suspension have left the electorate wondering
whether the curtain will ever come down on the political farce they are
witnessing.

Both sides seem to claim legitimacy and accuse each other of
violating the party constitution. But the MDC power struggle has now
degenerated into a circus.

Following a meeting of the national
council on December 1 that summoned the pro-senate faction comprising Gibson
Sibanda, Welshman Ncube, Gift Chimanikire, Fletcher Dulini Ncube, Paul
Themba Nyathi and Trudy Stevenson to a disciplinary hearing which suspended
them (they did not attend), the group has countered by reafffirming
Tsvangirai's suspension for violating the
constitution.

Accusations flying between the factions have left party
supporters bewildered and the MDC paralysed.

Analysts say the
major loser in the on-going fight for supremacy in the MDC is the electorate
that had invested so much hope and faith in the opposition party. Indeed
many have died for it.

Eldred Masunungure, a political science
lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, said the two factions in the MDC
seem to have reached a point where reconciliation was
impossible.

"The MDC has reached the end of the road as a unified
political organisation," Masunungure said.

"Each of the two
forces can go their own way, rather than pretend that they can reconcile and
operate like they did before they split over the issue of the senate. The
brutal reality is that they each have to go their separate ways," he
said.

But Tsvangirai's spokesman William Bango scoffed at the idea of
the party disintegrating.

"We are currently re-organising the
party ahead of the congress and I am afraid our colleagues will be left
behind while concentrating their energies on misinterpreting the
constitution," Bango said yesterday.

"Congress will decide who the
MDC is and which path the people want to follow."

However, the
pro-senate faction also said they were organising for
congress.

Nelson Chamisa, who is on the side of MDC leader
Tsvangirai, yesterday said the pro-senate group was violating the
constitution by holding "unlawful" meetings.

"We challenge the
'rebels' to go to court if they cannot interpret our constitution," Chamisa
said.

"It is becoming clear that the 'rebels' respect
constitutionalism and the rule of law for as long as it is not against
them."

The pro-senate group has been accusing Tsvangirai of violating
the constitution and unleashing thugs against party colleagues.

Mandaza case postponed again

Zim Independent

SUSPENDED Zimbabwe
Mirror Newspapers Group CEO and editor-in-chief Ibbo Mandaza's case came
unstuck in the courts this week - for the fifth time - and was postponed to
Monday after defence lawyers failed to appear.

Mandaza has been fighting
his suspension from the Mirror for the past two months but he has not been
able to go back to work despite winning a court order lifting his suspension
last week.

Mandaza's lawyer Joseph Mandizha said yesterday they were
going back to the courts on Monday to look for a "correction or
clarification order" to put the issue beyond any reasonable
doubt.

Justice Bharat Patel last week granted Mandaza a court order
lifting his suspension. The order interdicted, prohibited and restrained the
Mirror board from holding or continuing any disciplinary proceedings or
other actions against Mandaza.

However, Mirror group deputy
chairman John Marangwanda served Mandaza with a fresh suspension letter
based on three counts of alleged fraud outside the court. Mandaza was first
suspended in October by the Mirror chair Jonathan Kadzura and Marangwanda
without giving reasons.

Since then Mandaza has been struggling to
regain control of the Mirror group, publishers of the Daily Mirror and
Sunday Mirror, taken over by the Central Intelligence Organsiation (CIO)
using public funds.

Mandizha said Mandaza would proceed on Monday to
seek court protection from Marangwanda's action to suspend the Mirror boss
again which amounted to contempt of court.

Marangwanda's move
last week disturbed other Mirror board members loyal to Mandaza, Ambassador
Buzwani Mothobi and Amy Tsanga, who issued a statement saying the
"re-suspension" of the Mirror founder was unacceptable.

Mothobi and
Tsanga said the alleged charges of fraud against Mandaza were "clearly
contrived" as the Ernst & Young forensic audit report on which they were
purportedly based was "irregular" because there was no board meeting that
sanctioned the investigation.

"As board members, we have also
examined the alleged 'acts of fraud' and 'mismanagement' which have been
levelled against Dr Mandaza by the purported (Kadzura) board," Mothobi and
Tsanga said in a joint press release.

"These (allegations) are
clearly contrived and baseless, designed to create a pretext for the blatant
attempt to appropriate a privately-owned business by a group persons - and
their associates - who have in vain tried to act as a board." - Staff
Writer.

GMB fails to pay wheat producers

Zim Independent

Itai MushekweTHE
government, through the bankrupt Grain Marketing Board (GMB), has failed to
pay wheat farmers producer prices and bonuses in another display of
inefficiency by the Agriculture ministry.

Farmers who delivered wheat
early to the GMB hoping to use the proceeds to finance this season's maize
crop are stranded as there is no money to pay them.

Tobacco
farmers this week also said they had not been paid bonuses announced by
government five months ago.

Farmers who spoke to the Zimbabwe
Independent expressed grave concern over the GMB's inefficiency, which they
said would affect the whole farming cycle as "present farming expenditure
heavily depends on profits made from current yields".

This is set
to jeopardise government's efforts to revive the ailing agricultural
sector.

Government this year announced a producer a price of $6,9
million per tonne for wheat, from $2,4 million paid last year. Farmers said
this was still unsustainable as they needed an initial capital outlay of
about $14 million to cater for production costs, prompting them hold on to
the crop.

Government, which was importing wheat at over $20 million a
tonne, through the central bank, responded by announcing a bonus price of $3
million a tonne over and above the producer price, thereby pushing the new
offer price to $9,9 million a tonne. Due to this lure, the farmers started
delivering the crop they were holding but cheques have not come from the
central bank.

"We were desperate for money," said a farmer who
preferred anonymity.

"We proceeded to deliver our crop since the new
buying price was fair, but up until now we've not received a penny. One
wonders how the farming community is going to produce without sufficient
capital. No wonder the so-called land reform is failing."

Farmers
have also been cast into financial difficulties as their bank loans are
overdue and continue accruing interest.

Ironically, government is
making a windfall by charging millers $12 million for a tonne of wheat, paid
in advance while taking months to pay the producer.

Zimbabwe now a virtual penal colony

Zim Independent

Ray
Matikinye

IT was with an exquisite stroke of genius that Kenyan Professor
Ali Mazrui coined the phrase "exogenous determinism" to describe the
foolhardy practice of blaming everyone else but themselves adopted by
African nationalists to shield their post-Independence failures.

When
he fashioned that phrase in his book The African, he had no inkling
whatsoever that one day a nation that had so much potential as Zimbabwe at
Independence from colonial administrators would fritter away the chance and
make full use of exogenous determinism to explain all its
failures.

Neither did he envisage that African leaders would seek to
redefine and qualify the meanings of freedom, democracy and human rights,
which they touted as guiding principles that spurred their fight for
self-determination from their colonisers.

Yet, over time since
Independence from Britain in 1980, particularly in the past five years,
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF government has shown enormous powers of
assimilating undemocratic practices and passed laws akin to those crafted by
the colonial regime it replaced.

Some, like Posa, Aippa and recently the
Constitutional Amendment No 17, have so shocked Zimbabwe's erstwhile friends
that they have begun to doubt whether any revolution has taken
place.

It is incomprehensible that Zimbabwean leaders who spent long
periods in jails and detention centres should fail to grasp the basic tenets
of freedom and democracy that they were fighting for.

And there
appears to be a persistent effort on the part of government to chip away at
people's rights and freedoms, and ultimately their morale.

Last week
government used what a state official termed "compulsive" patriotism to
impound publisher Trevor Ncube and opposition politician Paul Themba
Nyathi's passports, purportedly to stop them from demonising Zimbabwe
whenever they travel abroad.

"Ask Tony Blair and George Bush why they
imposed sanctions on us," commented Information and Publicity deputy
minister, Bright Matonga, when asked why Zimbabwe would impose travel
restrictions on its own people.

"They go about spreading falsehoods and
we will do everything to defend our sovereignty," Matonga said to justify a
state violation of one of the basic freedoms.

If impounding passports
and restricting travel is meant to inculcate and compel citizens to be
patriotic, there seems to be no plausible reason why a government that
claims to have brought about democracy and freedom should abridge civil
liberties.

But patriotism has nothing to do with delusions that
everything will be okay were it not for the media, human rights activists
and opposition politicians telling the world that Zimbabweans deserve
better.

Patriotism is devotion to a particular place and a particular way
of life that one believes is the best in the world.

Zimbabwe is one
such place that, had it not been for a government that is temperamentally
hostile to the freedom of its own people, freedoms such as that of speech,
association, travel or expression would be taken for
granted.

Curtailing such freedoms by government does little to
inspire confidence in its own people. A dangerous creed that Zanu PF is
spreading can only appeal to citizens who think patriotism involves
oppressing their own people.

Critics say impounding passports and issuing
a list of people whose travel documents should be withdrawn in the same week
that the Australian Reserve Bank issued theirs is a ploy by government to
countermand travel restrictions imposed on Mugabe, his lieutenants and their
families by the EU and the US.

The travel restrictions have invented
designer excuses for government to explain its economic
failures.

Trade between
Australia and Zimbabwe has shrunk because Zimbabwe has no foreign currency
to import agricultural equipment like it used to, he said.

"On the other
hand Zimbabwe cannot export tobacco to Australia as in the past because of
the ruinous land reform programme that has seen agricultural production
decline dramatically," Sheppard adds.

Zanu PF has continued undaunted to
preach an outdated gospel and seems unable to grasp the fact that its
message wins it few listeners - unless you count Coltrane
Chimurenga.

The suffocating stupidity of government propaganda has
frightened away those who would assist it see reason and work towards the
betterment of the ordinary man in the street. The ruling party's actions
have forced people to look abroad for inspiration.

For instance is
has hounded bankers, judges, black entrepreneurs and journalists into
exile.

The latest actions were taken in pursuit of a provision in the
Constitutional Amendment No 17 that was railroaded through parliament by
Zanu PF using its parliamentary majority.

Analysts say the Bill was
enacted in an omnibus fashion to avoid MPs debating contentious
issues.

"This is about intimidation. This is about clamping down on the
independent media," Ncube says about the seizure of his passport by the
state. "This is about thorough control which has forced people to look over
their shoulders before they speak.

"It is about taking away the
freedom of the people to move about doing honest business."

More
importantly, Ncube says, there is a broader plan than just restricting his
movements. "The government has not been able to do an Ibbo Mandaza on the
Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard," he explains in reference to spirited
efforts by the government to take over the last independent newspaper titles
after muscling into the Mirror Group of Newspapers through the Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

"They cannot manipulate me or the people
that work for the two titles," Ncube says.

Ncube says by taking away
his passport government is trying to entice him to slip out of the country
without travel documents, then use that as an excuse to take over his
publications.

"In their thinking I have a lot to lose if I remain in
Zimbabwe. So I should be most tempted to skip the border to run my other
publication. Government would then specify me and take over the
papers."

Ncube owns the Mail & Guardian weekly newspaper in South
Africa.

Government has been busy destroying its own image in the eyes of
the international world.

In a statement last weekend, Ann Cooper,
executive director of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists said
the existence of a list of people whose passports should be invalidated is
an affront to basic rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of
movement.

"This is nothing short of a witch hunt against those courageous
few who still dare publicly to criticise President Robert Mugabe's regime
and its repression," a statement from the CPJ said.

The EU too
expressed outrage against government's seizure of passports from its critics
saying these actions violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
which guarantees everyone "the right to leave any country, includinghis own,
and to return to his country".

"Any withdrawal of a passport prevents
freedom of movement and is in breach of the declaration. We have repeatedly
expressed concerns about the human rights record in Zimbabwe and called on
the government to respect individuals' rights, which include free expression
and free movement."

Last year the Zanu PF government passed legislation
that banned foreign funding for local rights groups and tightened the
registration of other NGOs. And time is proving that Mugabe is reluctant to
sign the Bill into law because the country solely needs aid from
international donors and development agencies to ameliorate worsening food
and fuel shortages.

Undaunted by the setback, Mugabe's Zanu PF last week
adopted a party central committee report that recommended government take
action against NGOs and civic groups alligned to the opposition.

"The
opposition is also grouped in the form of NGOs and civic groups, all
sponsored by the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union,"
one of the party resolutions adopted by its congress says. "Stern action
shall be taken against them."

Industrial output to decline in 2006 - economists

Zim Independent

Itai
MushekweLOW foreign direct investment threatens economic growth and will see
the country's industrial output plummeting further in the coming year,
economists say.

Commentators attributed the poor investment to
government's skewed economic policies, which have scared investors. They
also note that "serious political reforms need to be implemented as the
political environment has a great influence on business as the two are
interdependent and complement each other".

Economist John
Robertson said the relocation of conglomerates such as Coca-Cola to South
Africa a few years ago are an sign that the country is not conducive for
investors.

"This was a major blow," he said "We're losing jobs and
investors. The message it sends to the world is painful and damaging as
Zimbabwe is being depicted as an unsuitable investment destination and we're
paying a high price for that."

Confederation of Zimbabwe
Industries president Pattison Sithole declined to comment, saying they were
in the processes of compiling a report on industry in terms of activity and
levels of productivity.

"It's difficult to make an assessment of
where we are without proper research," said Sithole. "We are in the process
of compiling an industry assessment report expected to be out any time from
now. So let's wait for the report and then we can make conclusions based on
its findings."

A total of 33 firms, representing about a fifth of
Zimbabwe's export companies, closed down during the first half of the year
due to the economic meltdown in the country.

According to a
report done by the Export Processing Zones Authority, of the 33 firms 12
were agro-companies shut down after their farms were acquired during
government's botched land reform exercise.

This has deprived the
economy of more than US$17,6 million.

Zimbabwe is suffering from its
worst economic recession since independence in 1980. Once a vibrant economy
driven by a robust agricultural base and low levels of unemployment, the
country has been reduced from a breadbasket to a basket case.

It
has the highest inflation rate in the world, which this week surged to 502%
from 411% last month, representing a 91 percentage point increase. The
government however remains adamant that the economy will get back on its
feet soon.

Finance minister Herbert Murerwa in his 2006 national
budget presentation recently projected economic growth of by between 2% and
3,5% next year in contrast to the International Monetary Fund's forecast of
minus 4,8% gross domestic product contraction.

President Robert
Mugabe declared 2005 a year of investment, but as we draw to a close there
is no meaningful foreign investments to talk of save for a few business
agreements signed with China as part of government's "Look East"
policy.

Zim falls further in investment ratings

Zim Independent

Shakeman
MugariZIMBABWE continues to tumble in global investment destination ratings
despite government's claims that it has created a favourable environment to
lure off-shore business.

A recent report compiled by the Investment
Climate Department of the World Bank ranks Zimbabwe as one of the most
difficult countries to do business in because of bureaucracy,
corruption-prone systems and high start-up costs.

The report titled,
Doing business in 2006, ranks Zimbabwe 126 out of 155 countries that were
surveyed to ascertain the investment climate.

The report ranks
Zimbabwe's investment climate as one of the worst in Sadc where it is ranked
10th out of the twelve countries considered.

Seychelles and Swaziland
were the only Sadc members that were not included in the study. Only
Tanzania and war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo are rated worse than
Zimbabwe.

Mozambique, a country recovering from civil war, is ranked
better than Zimbabwe at 110 globally and ninth in the region.

The
survey looked at critical issues that businesses consider before investing
in a country such as the cost and time of starting a business, licencing,
registration of property and protection of investors.

Mauritius is
ranked 23, making it the African country with the most conducive environment
for business. Neighbouring South Africa is rated 28th, Namibia (33),
Botswana (40) while Zambia is 67 out of the 155 countries.

Malawi is
ranked 96, Lesotho 97 and Mozambique 110. New Zealand is the easiest country
to do business in, according to the report.

The report measured the
number of taxes that investors have to pay and procedures they have to
follow when closing businesses and exporting or importing
products.

It considered the cost and procedures for hiring and firing
workers and enforcing contractual agreements in the corporate
world.

Zimbabwe is among the countries with the highest business
start-up costs. It is also among the countries with the highest costs of
registering a property.

The report noted that there was a direct
relationship between the business atmosphere and employment
creation.

"Although macro-policies are unquestionably important,
there is a growing consensus that the quality of government regulation of
business is a major determinant of prosperity," say the
report.

While in other successful countries like Finland it takes
about 56 days for an investor to get a licence, in Zimbabwe it takes 481
days (about 1 year and 4 months) to get the same document. A business has to
wait 160 days to get a licence in Botswana, 165 in Zambia and 176 days in
South Africa.

Zimbabwe is also fares lowly in corporate governance
and regulating of the liability of directors to the
shareholders.

Joanna Kate-Blackman, a private sector development
analyst with the World Bank department who visited Zimbabwe last week, told
businessdigest that there was need for more reforms to increase investment
in the country.

She said their research had shown that there was a
direct relationship between bureaucracy and corruption. "For instance, the
number of procedures that investors go through to get a licence in Zimbabwe
create fertile ground for corruption," said
Kate-Blackman.

"Increased interaction between business and government
officials also increases the chances of corruption." She said Zimbabwe and
other African countries needed more reforms to create an investor friendly
environment.

The report is one of many that have ranked Zimbabwe
lowly as an investment destination. Other global economic intelligence data
have rated Zimbabwe among the worst because of its political and economic
risk and lack of property rights

Beware soldier

Vincent
KahiyaI WAS not at all surprised by Major-General Martin Chedondo's bluster
at the beginning of the week that members of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces
must not support the opposition MDC.

My last encounter with military
officers at the Staff College earlier in the year exposed the extent of the
politicisation of the force. I recall officers putting up a feeble show to
prove that soldiers in Zimbabwe were professional and apolitical. They are
not, as was aptly demonstrated by Chedondo.

"If there is any
among you with a soft spot for the Movement for Democratic Change, the
military is not your place," Chedondo said in an address to army graduates
in Gweru.

Compare Chedondo's statement with this one by Defence
minister Sydney Sekeramayi in February last year at a reception for defence
attaches.

"May I remind you that the world over the defence forces as
the most powerful instrument of the state apparatus must be apolitical for
they are meant to guarantee the peace and security of every citizen in the
nation irrespective of religious, political or social
affiliation."

I sense in Chedondo's remarks a military outfit no
longer shy to advertise its partisan nature. Sekeramayi's official line on
the professionalism and political neutrality of the army has been well and
truly dumped. It has been superseded by a clearer policy that positions the
army as an apparatus of Zanu PF and not necessarily of
government.

But it should be borne in mind that the army assumed this
role way back in 2002 when former Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General
Vitalis Zvinavashe and other service chiefs called a press conference to
announce: "We wish to make it very clear to all Zimbabwean citizens that the
security organisations will only stand in support of those political leaders
that will pursue Zimbabwean values. We will therefore not accept, let alone
support or salute, anyone with a different agenda."

After that
infamous military pronouncement, there were strenuous attempts by government
and servicemen to give the statement a less corrosive meaning. We were
assured that "the military was apolitical and would serve any government".
This does not include an MDC government. They forgot to add this proviso at
the time.

Thanks to Chedondo, the military's position is now
unambiguous. It is also very dangerous.

It is dangerous because
President Mugabe does not see anything wrong with it. He is in Malaysia this
week to attend a dubious conference running under the name Perdana Peace
Forum where he will posture as a paragon of virtue and a defender of the
poor.

He is today expected to give a keynote address at a luncheon
hosted for delegates to the conference. His speech will be as predictable as
a book.

He will attack the United States and Britain over the war in
Iraq and the wider war on terror. He will excoriate rich countries for
dictating terms to the third world. He is right and everyone else is wrong,
including the United Nations. But this is the tragedy of African leaders.
They expect to get world respect while failing to deal decisively with
problems in their own backyards.

There is instead this obsession with
limousines, foreign travels and posturing at useless
conferences.

If this is a very useful conference at which Zimbabwe
has to be represented at all costs, our delegates there should carefully
read and reflect on the objectives of the Peace Forum.

Three of
them read: "To facilitate socio-political dialogue regarding peace issues;
to facilitate dialogue with all participants, as well as underscore the
importance of respecting the opinions of all participants and recognise the
right of divergent views as a basis for a peaceful solution to conflicts;
and to appeal to appropriate political representatives prepared to support
the causes of peace and accept the challenges of the 21st
Century."

The 21st century challenge before Zimbabwe at the
moment is for our leaders to recognise the importance of divergent views and
respect for other people's opinions in solving conflict. But there has been
a preoccupation with the myth that our government is not capable of erring
and that the antidote to the crisis is more repression and other thuggish
approaches to dealing with opponents. The Zanu PF government should make
peace with Zimbabweans by listening and not imposing thought
processes.

Writing in the banned Daily News in July 2003 Father Oskar
Wermter aptly captured how we are being governed. He said: "We have been
bored to tears so many times by the leader haranguing us endlessly because
he knows everything and we, the people, apparently know nothing, nothing at
least that would interest him.

"We need leaders who listen to us,
we who have entrusted them with power by our vote.

We have been
silenced by endless monologues. Instead, we need dialogue.

"Alas,
that is what a dictator fears most: he never asks questions because he has
all the answers. In holding a monologue, he is in control, in listening to
people speaking their minds he is not. So, running no risk, he dictates what
they have to answer.

"What we really need are leaders who respect the
people, humbly acknowledge we are all human and at the least, apologise when
they fail to fulfill their promises, and accept responsibility for the life
and well-being of all, friend and foe alike."

The Zanu PF
government presiding over our "mature democracy" has failed dismally to
achieve these basic tenets of leadership. Why then should the president wish
to attend a meeting that proclaims values diametrically opposed to
his?

Boycotts don't win political power

Zim Independent

Joram NyathiTHE
MDC has presented us with an insoluble political conundrum. What makes you
want to shed tears is the inconsequential trigger of the split - the senate
- itself a result of our failure to deal decisively with Zanu PF and its
suffocating regime.

The senate project was conceived as a sputum aimed
directly at our face. It is the ultimate act of contempt for a people so
utterly vanquished that they don't deserve to be consulted on anything. It
is a personal project by President Mugabe for the gratification of venal
cronies only too ready to oblige.

The debate about who was wrong
and who was right between the MDC factions on the senate issue is now merely
academic. We are getting bogged down in a debate that is not taking us
forward. Except that those who advocated a boycott now have a huge task of
showing us what they had up their sleeve. We are not worried about those who
chose to participate. Their case is settled. If you ask, they will tell you
they are now preparing for the next election, whether parliamentary or
presidential. For years Zanu clung to its one seat in Chipinge; that is how
it has survived to this day.

You may wonder what the point is. It is
simply that battles are won or lost by those who fight. You cannot win
political power through boycotts and hunger strikes hoping that global
sympathy will get you votes. So for those in the MDC who have the big
picture of a democratic dispensation in future, the fight is still on and
long. The political playing field is transparently uneven. There is need for
a new constitution and fresh ground rules before we can restore the
integrity of the electoral process. That is common cause throughout the
land. But fighting for a new constitution and contesting elections are not
mutually exclusive. If anything, participating in elections keeps a party
combat-ready, otherwise it is no different from a civic movement without any
space to protest.

A party that contests elections avoids the dilemma
faced by those who have to choose which election to take part in and which
not though the reasons for a boycott of the senate were clear enough. It is
a useless Mugabe project to provide himself with a fat mattress for
soft-landing when he "finally decides" to start writing his memoirs. This is
where the contempt for citizens comes in - he will decide himself when to
step down. It has nothing to do with performance or accounting to voters for
why he should continue in power. The MDC poses no danger. In fact it is
weaker now than it was when it emerged from the ZCTU in 1999.

In
other words, even before Mugabe decided on the senate bogey, the problems of
a weak leadership in the MDC had become so manifest he didn't need to
consult. This is where those for the boycott miss the point. The MDC won
just 41 seats in March despite countrywide campaigns by Morgan Tsvangirai
and his colleagues. Nobody wants to explain the reduction in seats except to
use unproven claims of rigging. But all are agreed there wasn't as much
violence in 2005 as there was in 2000 when the MDC snatched a
stomach-churning 57 seats from the jaws of a vicious Zanu PF fighting for
its life.

Now there are opportunists who want to give Tsvangirai
credit by claiming that people listened to his call for a boycott to explain
the low voter turnout. The senate's uselessness was its own worst enemy.
That explains why both the MDC pro-senate faction and Zanu PF could not
galvanise people to go out and vote.

There is also the myopic
view that people didn't vote because they had more pressing issues to attend
to. We are yet to meet a group of people who have more fuel or food or new
accommodation because they did not vote. Show us just one family that is
better off for boycotting the senate election and we will show you thousands
who still don't know what's next.

Which brings us to the subterfuge
by writers who try to turn the boycott argument on its head. They argue
Tsvangirai did not win the call for a boycott but listened to the people who
did not want to vote anyway. They might be right about the listening bit,
but are woefully off the mark about the reasons why he would need to listen.
He was afraid of losing a fourth time.

There was nothing to hand with
which to mobilise people after failing to do so in March when there was a
chance of slashing Zanu PF's majority in parliament with new electoral
rules.

Point number two, these are the same people he had tried to
lead in the "final push" and they ignored him. When he was arrested he
expected a revolt, or at least mass protests. There was nothing. These are
the same people he tried to mobilise for protests over transport problems
Mahatma Ghandi-style in September but they ignored him.

Every
astute observer will tell you that was the idea of Tsvangirai walking to
work from his home. But there were no takers and openly calling for mass
protests would have had repercussions on him personally again. These are the
same people who had their homes and businesses destroyed in May under
Operation Murambatsvina but couldn't be moved. So a boycott was the
opportunistic route of a man both frustrated and resigned to a population
badly inured to inaction. Everyone hopes for a miracle without taking time
to pray for it to happen.

But that is not the end of problems for
Tsvangirai and his boycott camp. If you ask them what's next, all they tell
you about now is the party congress in February. But congress is a party
fiesta, and offers no urgent solutions to the national crisis while its aim
and objectives are very clear - to deal once and for all with the pro-senate
faction and reassert leadership of the party.

But that is the simpler
part, attacking the point of least resistance to avoid tackling head-on Zanu
PF and Mugabe. Which is why Mugabe is having a full belly-laugh all the way
to Malaysia knowing he is as safe as the proverbial rock of Gibraltar. When
family members fight each other and ignore the common enemy what threat can
they pose to anyone?

Which leads us to the dilemma of boycotts. What
happens to Tsvangirai and his camp should Mugabe call for a presidential
election today or in 2008? The current paralysis has been caused by
Tsvangirai's claim that the electoral laws bring "predetermined outcomes".
We believe the electorate at times feels the same, which is why we advocate
constitutional reforms to fight voter apathy and restore the integrity of
democratic electoral outcomes.

But what happens if the laws are not
amended until 2010 when we should have both presidential and parliamentary
elections? That is the big question and a boycott cannot be taken to be a
serious answer for a party that wants to be seen as a government in waiting.
People need to know the position of their party well ahead of an election to
find out the issues at stake and make informed decisions.

That is
why we hope the MDC factions will soon resolve their unedifying petty
squabbles that have bogged them down and look at the bigger picture in the
national interest. After all they are both right on the substantive issues -
one faction is politically correct while the other is legally right. The
party is crying out for leadership renewal and all traces of dictatorial
tendencies and undemocratic dispositions should be nipped in the bud for the
good of us all.

Colonial past no excuse for ruin

By Chido
MakunikeIN the last three months I have been privileged to visit and
experience several countries I had never been to before. It is a wonderful
education.

Every time I have been in a new place I try to savour the
experience as well as compare it to life in Zimbabwe.

A recurring
thought throughout my travels is what a special place Zimbabwe is. Of course
every place is special in its own way, and I do not make this statement
about Zimbabwe at all in a jingoist way. I am also keenly aware of my
homeland's many problems and deficiencies.

I have marvelled at and
enjoyed the efficiency and prosperity of some of the world's most developed
countries. I have just arrived in Senegal and look forward in the coming
months to becoming acquainted with parts of Africa I have not experienced
before.

Zimbabwe has (or had) a wonderful combination of modern world
infrastructure and functionality that may have been very unfairly
distributed, but that provided a strong base on which to build and expand
for the majority of its people. Yet it did not have the coldness of many of
the highly efficient developed countries I have visited. While enjoying
these countries and respecting the systems they have been able to build for
the benefit of their societies, there is not a single one that I would
rather make my home than Zimbabwe. It made me even more keenly aware of the
immorality and criminality of Zimbabwe's sadly reduced status at the hands
of its rulers.

In Zimbabwe, Mugabe and his cohorts encourage us to
think of ourselves as permanent victims. Victims of seemingly everything and
everybody, from the weather to the past, but especially of Europe and the
West in general.

According to Mugabe, all our many and escalating
problems can in some way be traced to colonialism and its aftermath. Not
only that, but Mugabe effectively paints us as being utterly and helplessly
at the mercy of that past.

We are expected to spend more time and
energy in feeling sorry for ourselves over the past than on working to
ensure a better future.

Whenever I could, I have tried to get a sense
of the history of a place I am visiting by going to see museums or
archeological sites. In this way facts that you may know from school or from
reading history are presented to you much more graphically and
indelibly.

On the south coast of Europe the history of conquests and
wars over the millennia are obvious in just looking at the varied physical
makeup of the population on the street or the beach. The stories of North
African Moors raiding and for a time controlling what are now Spain and
Portugal have more of a ring of truth when one looks at the features of the
people in those countries, their cuisine, their whole way of life. I give
this one example only because "the evidence" was so starkly clear to
me.

But everywhere you go, there is hardly any people that do not
have a "colonial history". That history affects every aspect of life forever
in one way or another, both negatively and positively. In some places that
colonial history has receded far enough into the past that it is analysed
neutrally, as something that happened but too far back in time for it to
really arouse any strong emotions any longer. In other places one may find
still lingering resentments, even if former conquerer and conquered are more
alike than they are different, as in the case of Europe's many tribal wars
over the centuries.

I mention this in the context of Mugabe's
pitiful reliance on trying to stoke resentment over the past to try to
explain and justify his anger at his failure to make present-day Zimbabwe
work for its people and to leave a solid foundation of stability, hope and
confidence for future generations of Zimbabweans.

The colonial
experience and fighting to overcome it are not unique to Zimbabwe. Plunder,
mistreatment, injustice and heroic fights against them are as old as the
human experience on this planet. Look around all over the planet and you
will see everywhere examples of people who went through horrendous
ill-treatment but overcame it to not only become self-governing, but to
build highly successful societies. There are nations that are political,
post-colonial contemporaries of Zimbabwe's that are surging forward
inexorably even as Mugabe and his regime tirelessly work to pull Zimbabwe in
the opposite direction.

All over the world people are generally
cynical about politics and wary of politicians. This scepticism is healthy.
But Zimbabwe's politicians stand out for so astonishingly and completely
denying responsibility for everything. They work harder at the denials than
they do at dealing with realities. You can count on hearing more
scapegoating, anger and recrimination from the mouth of Mugabe than you can
expect to get cool analysis and a presentation of realistic problem-solving
proposals.

The Mugabe regime may set the dominant pace of the tense,
soul-destroying negative climate that plagues Zimbabwe, but it has now
spread everywhere. I expected to be able to easily purchase a new cellphone
prepaid line in developed Germany. But I was just as easily able to do the
same in Zambia and in Senegal - new, legitimate SIM packs are available from
tuckshop vendors with no hassles whatsoever, at prices that are reasonable
even in local terms. But in comparatively more advanced Zimbabwe, our three
cellphone networks have for years perpetuated the fiction that having a
cellphone number is a complicated, expensive exercise "because we are
upgrading our network."

The government-like cynicism of Net One,
Econet and Telecel are much more apparent to me now that I have been exposed
to networks with sometimes less capacity but with a much better attitude to
their whole reason for existence.

After many years of dealing
with one bank in Harare, I had enough of a core of committed professionals
in my particular branch I could count on for help of one kind or another
when necessary. But at that bank as well as in most banks one has no choice
but to deal with, the service is also often cynical, aloof, expensive and
indifferent.

Imagine my shock at actually being greeted with a smile
by a bank teller in Lusaka! Imagine my surprise at a senior bank official in
Dakar who actually responds to your email!

The contrasts are not
because of anything intrinsically different between us and the Senegalese or
the Zambians. Like we used to be some years ago, these are countries at
peace with themselves. They have their problems but they are calmly working
on them to the best of their abilities. There is no tension in the air. One
does not automatically assume that a soldier or a police officer is an agent
of oppression as in other countries, now unfortunately including the once
great Zimbabwe.

The fight against how Mugabe and what he represents
has reduced Zimbabwe to an object of international derision and pity is a
noble and just one. The reflection forced on one by travel has reminded me
that every nation has experienced its moments of decline and destruction at
the hands of madmen at one time or another, whether they be foreigners or
locals.

No matter how colossal and all-powerful they seemed at the
height of their destructive powers, they were also constantly providing
momentum to the forces that would eventually sweep them away. That is
exactly what is happening in Zimbabwe today.

Rhodesia incarnates as repression grows

Zim Independent

By Rashweat
MukunduTHE recent seizure of travel documents of Zimbabwe Independent and
Standard newspapers publisher, Trevor Ncube and former MDC MP Paul Themba
Nyathi is one of the indicators of how government-orchestrated repression
has made another turn for the worst.

Since 2000, we have all seen a
well-planned onslaught on the very basic rights of Zimbabwean citizens from
the disrespect of court rulings, political violence and intimidation, and
passage of repressive laws, similar to the by-gone Rhodesia.

The
message since 2000 has been consistent: that no one must oppose the Zanu
PF-led government.

While political repression in Zimbabwe has its
roots in the immediate post-Independence era, one can argue that since 2000,
repression was made policy and state resources have been abused towards this
end.

Zanu PF's political survival project takes no prisoners as we
have seen with the closure of four newspapers in a space of three years and
the arrests of thousands of citizens who attempted to express their
displeasure and concerns over an array of visible social and economic
problems through peaceful protests.

While a lot of work has been
put into trying to convince the Zanu PF-led government to repeal the laws
which make Zimbabwe not very different from Rhodesia, not much has been
achieved.

Few patriotic Zimbabweans would have thought that
government repression would go a gear up, to literally curtail individuals'
rights to movement on spurious allegations of "threatening national
interests".

Last week's events serve as a reminder that the present
government will not stop at anything in its quest to silence any dissenting
voices.

The message is very clear to all of us: be afraid, be very
afraid.

It is important that we keep in mind that Zimbabwe is
supposed to be very different from Rhodesia and that the present government
has made a lot of effort to present itself as distinct from the erstwhile
oppressors. We must keep in mind also that those who have lost their travel
documents and those who shall follow suit are said to have threatened
national interests, as stated in the recent Constitutional Amendment Number
17.

National interests are, however, not defined in the new law so
that citizens of Zimbabwe can know how to conduct themselves within Zanu
PF's laws.

National interests were also defended by the Rhodesian
regime through laws such as the Law and Order Maintenance Act
(Loma).

One can conclude that the present Zimbabwean state is a
continuation of the colonial state, only that the skin of the oppressor has
changed, otherwise nothing else has moved.

The move to seize
travel documents from people the government sees as its enemies, is a
continuation of a type of governance that this territory has been familiar
with since 1890.

Some say the more things change, the more they
remain the same.

The vagueness of laws such as the constitutional
amendment is deliberate so that anything can be seen as a threat to
"national interests" should the government decide so. Similar laws existed
under Rhodesia that barred individuals seen as threatening national
interests, and these people were literally detained in certain areas and
some banished to their rural homes.

We question how the ruling party
justifies its actions as democratic and as in the true national interest
that we all share.

We ask how Zanu PF calls itself a party that
brought freedom when in essence it operates on the same standards as
Rhodesia. While the government argues that one's travel documents and
identification documents are a privilege, that through their benevolence
they bestow upon us lesser beings, I argue that one's travel and
identification documents are part of one's identity as a citizen of
Zimbabwe.

Many times what distinguishes and identifies one as a
citizen of Zimbabwe are those documents, and in the absence of one
committing serious criminal acts, armed insurrection or any other crime of
that magnitude, one cannot have his/her Zimbabweanness taken
away.

Zanu PF cannot take away what amounts to one's birthright in
pursuit of its narrow and partisan political interests. If one is born a
Zimbabwean, neither political force nor law should take that away. We wonder
what makes those who carry out these acts think that they are more
Zimbabwean than the rest of us.

This takes us to the next part of
my argument, that is the ruling party is no longer capable of taking this
country forward.

For many in Zanu PF who call themselves Marxists and
read Marxism well, I say their historical mission is over and there are so
many contradictions in their system that makes it impossible for Zanu PF to
take this country forward.

Looking back into history the present
day leadership never had an agenda of freedom. As stated earlier, Zimbabwe
in its present form, is Rhodesia incarnate.

Many genuine
freedom-loving Zimbabweans who died for the cause of freedom are certainly
turning in their graves as Rhodesia rises from its ashes in the form of Zanu
PF.

While many thought taiva tose (we were together) many in
leadership of this government are admirers of Rhodesia. That is the reason
why we have Posa, Aippa, BSA and indeed, the latest moves to detain
Zimbabweans within our borders.

Many in this leadership were part
of the nationalists' movement for, now we know, class and sectarian reasons
and interests and not for true national interests which they purport to
represent.

This explains why the land issue only became relevant as a
political project in 2000 and not as socio-economic justice nor an
empowerment issue some 20 years after Independence.

Many of us in
our naivety and polarisation might see the confiscation of fellow citizens'
travel documents as political victories of some sort. Some will be small and
fickle-minded and argue that these individuals deserve it. The truth,
however is: we are all vulnerable and democratic standards must be protected
and those we think differently about or see as our opponents must be
defended, should their democratic rights be threatened.

While some
within the ruling party and government celebrate, at least their true
colours continue to show for the world to see. While Zanu PF sees such moves
as a show of force and power, the truth is that what the world and patriotic
Zimbabweans see are the devil's fangs.

Mugabe's cruel joke on the people

Zim Independent

By Denford
MagoraIT was a pathetic little attempt to grab the attention of the world
powers. Zimbabwe has got uranium, President Robert Mugabe said. And we are
going to use it to generate power, apparently.

Do not believe a word
of it. This latest assertion is as true as his claim that the country would
have fuel in "a few weeks". That claim was made several months ago and we
are still to see anything at service stations.

Indeed, if this
country had uranium, that special commodity would have been sold to the
Iranians a long time ago, and the money used to pay for fuel, electricity
and water treatment chemicals that have now made Zimbabwe the toilet of
Africa.

As the newswire services immediately pointed out after
President Mugabe had made the uranium claim, Zimbabwe also spoke brashly
about getting a nuclear reactor from Argentina in the 1990s. Nothing has
been heard of that since. The truth of the matter, it would appear, is that
Zimbabwe has no uranium.

It is all a cruel joke played on the people
of the country. Why, it may well be asked, would the president of a whole
country promote such an untruth?

We can put a hypothesis forward. Of
course, this same man told an untruth about fuel being available in
abundance in a couple of weeks and then slunk around in silent embarrassment
for months afterwards, thereby establishing a pattern that started long
before the uranium claim.

Why this latest obviously discredited
claim? Some of us will venture a guess. Could it be that our government is
now so desperate for dialogue with the Western powers that it now pretends
to have uranium? Is the hope that, when this claim reaches the ears of the
West, they will turn around and try to befriend Mugabe and his crew in order
to block any sales of uranium by Zimbabwe to the likes of Iran and North
Korea?

It can be read as follows: Zanu PF is so desperate to engage
in talks with Western powers that it will manufacture non-existent uranium
in the hope of extracting promises to be bailed out of the hole it has dug
for itself.

Certainly, this is how it is already being viewed in
Western capitals, whose intelligence services dismissed this idea out of
hand almost as soon as the words left Mugabe's mouth.

Some have
pointed out that, up until now, Zimbabwe was not known to have any deposits
of the metal. The government is so broke that it has no money for its own
bus-fare, let alone enough money to prospect for minerals.

And, indeed,
we know that we have so few deals coming through these days that even just
the promise of prospecting for uranium would have sufficed to send the whole
of the state media into a frenzied mania.

So it is highly unlikely
that a prospecting team from another country came into Zimbabwe, discovered
uranium and then left for their own country without this wonderful thing
being revealed even once. We have had to hear it from President Robert
Mugabe, the international man of mysterious fuel deliveries at a low-key
ceremony in Zvimba. Credible? Hardly.

What this tells the people of
Zimbabwe is that our government has now reached the end of its wits, if it
ever had any. This latest gimmick to try and panic the world into
discussions with the ruling party should actually send shivers of alarm
through all of us.

It says that our government is now clutching at
straws. The scapegoats, as this paper pointed out recently, are quickly
running out. Next year, the country will have nothing to eat even if it
rains cats and dogs simply because Joseph Made and his Agriculture ministry
have failed year in and year out to organise agriculture.

Didymus
Mutasa has failed dismally to see the multiple-ownership saga come to a
clean end. The excuse of drought will not wash next year and we wait with
bated breath to hear what excuse they will have when the harvest proves
inadequate? Maybe British premier Tony Blair is walking the fields of
Zimbabwe sowing salt into the earth so that nothing grows! Stranger things
have been seen to happen by our paranoid leaders!

Then of course
there is the embarrassing incident with the fuel. The excuses we got first
time were that fuel prices have gone up on the international market, hence
we could not buy as much fuel as we wanted with our little forex. Details of
the forex used for fuel were not given, mostly because the details were
"zero". Now, however, international oil prices are at a four-month
low.

It is being forecast that oil will be trading below US$40 a
barrel by January. Demand in the Western hemisphere was not that high this
past winter, because of unusually cosy winter temperatures. So, the excuse
about the high international price of oil has fallen by the wayside. And our
government has gone silent, still can't provide fuel, a basic ingredient for
the proper functioning of any economy.

Undaunted, they mouth off
platitudes about wanting an economic recovery, wanting to turn the economy
around and about failure not being an option. It is just so much nonsense
and everyone has woken up to that now.

Of late, Zanu PF has got into
the habit of exhorting the people to "pull together", to "play their
part".

There are calls to refrain from corruption even as alleged
well-connected flour smugglers are let off the hook without a good enough
explanation to the people of Zimbabwe.

Beaten and bowed, the
state media has refrained from investigating this very real story. They are
shortchanging the people by not exposing what "not enough evidence" means.
Why? Because there is one law for the leaders of Zanu PF and their relatives
and another set of draconian laws for the rest of the
population.

If it was MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's nephew who had
been accused of smuggling flour or gold, would we have heard the end of
it?

Would he not have been paraded before all the papers and a link
found to his uncle?

Would it have been conveniently found that
there was "not enough evidence" against him?

Oh no! He would have
been pursued high and low.

And herein lies the root of our
government's desperation. Like that proverbial monkey, it wants to free its
hand from the hole in the tree-trunk, but refuses to let go of the nut that
makes this impossible. How can you be fighting corruption when you yourself
are so attracted to it, so reluctant to let it go?

Would you
start a fire against this corruption knowing full that the fire will, in the
end, consume you as well?

All these contradictions and half-measures
are now catching up with Zanu PF as are the lies.

Desperately
then, they see their last hope lying in dialogue with Blair that the
president was begging for earlier this year, around the time of the talk
about that non-existent "South African loan".

Yes, dialogue with
Blair and United States president George Bush is now first prize. But why
should these two men who could live, nay thrive without Zimbabwe and Mugabe,
talk to the rulers of Zimbabwe?

This is where the uranium talk comes
in. It is Mugabe's last hope. He needs rescuing and he needs it badly. So,
some wit in his office must have counselled him that feigning the discovery
of uranium would have the West beating a path to his
door.

Whereupon our government would make demand upon demand and
thereby buy itself time at the very least, if it was not able to actually
get any monetary benefit from this concoction. It is sad and pathetic. But
it is the Zimbabwe we live in today.

If, by some crazy chance,
the uranium is indeed in existence within our borders, our failure to
exploit it to bring foreign currency into the country would only be yet
another damning indictment of this rudderless government. Uranium is in high
demand for peaceful means all over the world, from France to even Iran
itself.

Selling the uranium we have now would have been a walk in the
park and it would have brought such a windfall of foreign currency that we
would have managed to plug the forex gaps that have now turned into yawning
chasms.

MDC should not play into Zanu PF's hands

Zim Independent

By Pedzisai
RuhanyaRECENT events in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) over
leadership differences in relation to the senate election need reflection in
order not to allow the Harare regime to get away with its numerous
misdemeanours in the administration of national affairs since
1980.

It is my opinion that after the dust has settled, the MDC
leadership across the board should seriously reflect on whether their petty
differences over the senate election were either in the national interest or
the party's interest.

I submit that the differences were not in
the national interest because it is taking the country backwards and
allowing President Robert Mugabe to create his grand goal of creating a one
party-state in the country which the MDC has for the past six years
successfully fought.

It is therefore crucial for the MDC leadership
to examine their differences and see whether it would not be better for them
to admit that they are losing track by playing into the hands of the
dictator.

While recent events suggest that the two groups are
irreconcilable, there are a plethora of common denominators that should
unite them.

Firstly, the greatest of all evils that this country is
faced with - the repressive institution called Zanu PF and its equally
repressive state apparatus - are still intact and abusing human rights in
the country.

Secondly, the leader of this institution, Robert Mugabe
is still defiant and continues to legislate repression through laws such as
Aippa, Posa and the Constitutional Amendment Number 17.

Last, but
not least, the economic meltdown continues unabated. These issues should
unite the opposition more than any other factor.

The opposition would
be wrong to concentrate on their in-house problems at the expense of the
deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. For instance, while the MDC is busy
fighting itself, Mugabe is busy violating fundamental national and
international human rights norms as they relate to freedoms of movement,
association and expression.

The recent confiscation of former MDC
spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi's passport should send clear messages to the
MDC leaders that despite their differences, Mugabe and his cohorts continue
to treat them as "enemies of the state" who should not be allowed to leave
Zimbabwe and exercise their freedoms. Today it's Nyathi, tomorrow it could
be Morgan Tsvangirai and the next target might be Professor Welshman Ncube
or Tsvangirai's vice-president, Gibson Sibanda.

It is my
submission that the rift over the senate poll should unite the MDC
leadership and jerk them into realising that Zanu PF wants to deal with them
as a political group.

The Nyathi incident should also enlighten
those in the opposition party who suspected that Zanu PF was supporting the
other faction.

I do not share this opinion, particularly the belief
that Ncube connived with the state in the treason trial of Tsvangirai. It
ignores Zanu PF's history of treason trials of genuine opposition leaders in
the country since 1980.

It should be remembered that Mugabe,
through the Central Intelligence Organisation, charged all legitimate
opposition leaders with treason, starting with the late Joshua Nkomo, Dumiso
Dabengwa and the late Ndabaningi Sithole.

These were genuine
nationalists with legitimate complaints about Mugabe's repression. The same
applies to Tsvangirai and the MDC.

That Tsvangirai and his colleagues
pose the greatest challenge to Mugabe's political hegemony cannot be
contested. That the MDC under Tsvangirai, in my opinion, won the 2000 and
2002 parliamentary and presidential elections, is a popular view among many
Zimbabweans that cannot be disputed.

It is against that background
that Tsvangirai was charged with treason, not the allegations against
Ncube.

Any views to the contrary would be to play into the hands of
Mugabe at the expense of healing the differences in the
opposition.

Such views are not in the interest of political
reconciliation in the MDC because they exonerate Mugabe and the CIO's roles
in destabilising the opposition. This would amount to celebrating Mugabe's
treachery and at the same time allowing him to run away with the
gospel.

Mugabe not Tsvangirai, Ncube, Sibanda and Isaac Matongo
destroyed Zimbabwe. The MDC should thus realise that and swallow whatever
differences the leadership has and confront the dictatorship.

The
MDC should also examine why the government did not prosecute Sibanda when he
allegedly called for a separate state in Matabeleland. The regime balked
because Sibanda never made those remarks. If he had done that and the state
had evidence, surely Sibanda could have been charged with treason for
calling for secession which is not even allowed under international law.
This was CIO work meant to destabilise the opposition.

It could
not be taken to court because, like in the Tsvangirai treason trial, where
an international conman, Ari Ben-Menashe, was used as a star state witness,
even an infiltrated judiciary would find it difficult to convict
Sibanda.

Moving around the country denouncing Tsvangirai or Ncube
will not assist the democratic struggle that the country is facing, but
moving across Zimbabwe denouncing the confiscation of citizens' passports,
food shortages and the huge democratic deficit in our country will make
Zimbabweans come together in the call for transparent electoral and
legitimate governance in the country.

According to the political
spiral model of politics as described by some scholars, Zimbabwe under
Mugabe is experiencing the denial stage where the repressive administration
is denying that it is violating human rights in the country despite both
domestic and international pressure and outcries on the situation obtaining
in the country.

What then needs to be done according to this model of
politics in the Zimbabwean crisis is to ratchet up both domestic and
international pressure on Mugabe and his administration to the extent that
he is forced into making tactical concessions by making genuine democratic
reforms in the legislature, executive and judiciary.

This should
be done through the call for constitutional reforms that will entail the
birth of democratic institutions capable of producing legitimate electoral
outcomes. This is why the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) route is
the way forward.

Zimbabwe almost reached this phase in 2000 after the
constitutional referendum but the opposition then became more reformists and
in the process lost the momentum by dining in the structures of the
regime.

Having realised that he had made some concessions and the
opposition was gaining more ground by winning almost all urban municipal
elections, Mugabe changed his gears and started to be more repressive. He is
now firing elected mayors and tightening his grip on his illegitimate
powers. The country is now back in the denial stage.

What the MDC
needs to do now is to unite and join civic colleagues in piling more
pressure on the regime. It is my submission that such pressure would bear
results because the international community is now more aware of the crisis
of legitimacy and governance affecting Mugabe. This has been seen through
the confiscation of citizens' passports, the recent UN missions to assess
effects of the clean-up and the continued onslaught against the independent
media.

This time around, the government should not be allowed to make
piece-meal reforms, but far-reaching democratic reforms leading to free and
fair elections.

Mugabe should not be allowed to dictate the
nature of changes in Zimbabwe's body politic. He should be made to abide by
national and international democratic norms of state behaviour.

*
Pedzisai Ruhanya is former deputy news editor of the banned Daily
News.

Passport snatch will have 'chilling' effect

Zim Independent

Trevor
NcubeWHEN I woke up in Johannesburg last Thursday morning I was surprised to
discover that the Australian government had included my name on a list of
over 120 Zimbabweans barred from doing business with that country's Reserve
Bank for allegedly aiding and abetting President Robert Mugabe's
government.

By the time I boarded the plane heading for my brother's
wedding in Bulawayo, the Australians had already called to apologise for the
error and I promptly put the matter behind me. The truth of the matter is
that being included on the Australian list never bothered me for a moment.
My sense was that it is the prerogative of the Australians to decide who is
allowed to visit their country and who is not.

On arrival at
Bulawayo airport on Thursday afternoon I discovered that I was on another
list - this one comprising 17 Zimbabweans whose passports had been
invalidated and were due to be withdrawn. I was to learn the following day
that the instruction to withdraw and invalidate my passport was made by
Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede in a letter dated November 24 addressed to
Chief Immigration Officer Elasto Mugwadi. Mugwadi then sent out a circular
four days later to all ports of entry.

On Wednesday my lawyers
managed to recover my passport after I made a High Court application for its
return. The application asserts that the action was unlawful, a violation of
the rules of natural justice, and lacked procedural fairness.

The
confiscation of the passport was also grossly unreasonable and irrational.
Assuming the impounding of the passport was based on things I have written
or said on what is happening in Zimbabwe, this action violates my freedom of
thought and expression. The fact that I found myself under "country arrest"
meant that my constitutional right to freedom of movement was severely
vitiated.

I must hasten to add that the actual seizure of my passport
was effected by a youthful member of the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) who identified himself to me. And because of internal divisions within
President Robert Mugabe's spooks, many have been talking to me and my
colleagues. The reasons for this abuse of authority and heavy-handed action
are beginning to emerge.

Apparently the Mediagate scandal
uncovered by Dumisani Muleya at the Zimbabwe Independent a few months ago is
at the heart of the confiscation of my passport. In a nutshell, the exposé
revealed that the CIO had taken over three privately-owned newspapers,
namely the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the Financial Gazette,
leaving the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard as the only independent
newspapers in the country.

The Mediagate exposé was a big blow to the
CIO's ability to continue to use public funds to finance the Mirror
newspapers. And this has put the director-general of the CIO, Brigadier
Happyton Bonyongwe, the author of this media strategy, in a
pickle.

The Mediagate strategy is part of the CIO's broad plan
codenamed Project October whose two main objectives are to ensure that the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is severely weakened and
that there should not be any privately-owned newspaper group in the country
by 2010, thus ensuring the only voice heard across the land is President
Mugabe's.

Zanu PF intends to postpone the presidential election due
in 2008 to 2010 through a constitutional amendment which is expected soon.
To all intents and purposes, they have achieved the first objective as the
MDC is hopelessly divided and they are now working on the second. My
continued ownership of the Independent and Standard stands in the way of
achieving this second goal.

Apart from being an autocratic
approach to dealing with perceived critics and instilling a climate of fear
across the country, the confiscation of my passport is thus expected to
deliver on the second objective of winning the hearts and minds of
Zimbabweans through a sycophantic and pliant media.

My sources tell me
that the thinking within the CIO is that I have a lot to lose by staying in
the country without a passport and that I will be forced to flee the country
illegally. If I did that I would be termed a "fugitive", paving the way for
a takeover of my businesses. They would have killed two birds with one
stone, that is settling their grudge over the Mediagate story and muzzling
the last private newspapers in the country.

With their mission
accomplished, the CIO, who are effectively running this country following
the failure of civilian structures and the deep divisions within the ruling
party and the government over the succession issue, would be well placed to
play king-makers and anoint a candidate of their choice to succeed
Mugabe.

The problem with CIO newspaper ownership is that it is
calculated to serve factional interests in Zanu PF and not the national
good. This is why it has created divisions in cabinet, the ruling party and
government. The whole thing is about rigidly controlling the media, not just
to win hearts and minds, but specifically to influence the outcome of the
Mugabe succession struggle.

The government has increasingly
become a quasi-military dictatorship both in form and substance. Currently
seven members of Mugabe's cabinet are former military or intelligence
strongmen. Of the 31 key government institutions or parastatals, 13 are
headed by former military or intelligence officers. These include the
National Parks, Prison Services, the Grain Marketing Board, and the CIO
itself. Government bureaucracy, including electoral supervision, is now run
by the army. We have even seen the military being deployed to implement
command agriculture - Operation Maguta - to deal with food
shortages.

It must be pointed out that the two men at the centre of
the seizure of my passport, Mugwadi and Mudede, work in cahoots with the
military and intelligence structures that meet every week under the auspices
of the Joint Operations Committee (JOC) to discuss security
issues.

Bonyongwe, whose media department compiled the list of 17
names, is a rising star in this gang. He has become even more powerful
against the backdrop of the succession squabbles in the ruling
party.

While I have not officially been given the reasons for the
seizure of my passport, there is speculation that the list of 17, believed
to be a prelude to a longer list of 64 which Mugabe ordered to be drawn up
at his party's recent conference, is perhaps the first salvo in implementing
the provisions of Constitutional Amendment No 17 which gives the government
power to seize the passports of people it perceives as "threatening the
interests of the state".

The problem is that currently there is
no enabling legislation to implement this Orwellian provision. But then laws
are not usually allowed to stand in the way of Mugabe's grand political
designs.

There is evidence already that the seizure of my passport
has had the desired result across the country and on Zimbabweans living
abroad. Many in and outside the country will be terrified to speak out
against current abuses for fear of losing their passports. Many now fear
coming home for Christmas to see their loved ones because there is no
guarantee that they will not lose their passports on
arrival.

While terribly inconvenienced by the seizure of my passport,
I am not at all intimidated. I will always exercise my birthright to speak
out against misrule and injustice. A passport cannot be used as a gagging
instrument.

I shall not be silenced by a regime whose leadership and
policy failures have reduced Zimbabwe to a wasteland and which wants to
blame everybody but itself for the colossal disaster it has caused through
its corrupt and incompetent rule.

Government just won't face
realities

Zim Independent

Eric Bloch Column

By Eric Bloch

LAST week President Robert Mugabe delivered
three key-note addresses. The first was his State of the Nation Address to
parliament, whilst the second was when he addressed the 64th Zanu PF Central
Committee meeting, ahead of the ruling party's "Eighth Annual People's
Conference".

The third of his addresses was at the official opening of
that conference. Each of the addresses evidenced irrefutably the extent to
which Zimbabwe's government is oblivious to realities.

The magnitude
of that oblivion is so great that government does not only blind itself to
that which is necessary to restore the economy to one which can sustain the
Zimbabwean populace, but also causes government to adopt stances and
determine policies which are diametrically opposite to those which are
needed.

Compounding this calamitous circumstance is that government
remains convinced that it is incapable of error, misjudgement, and that
therefore anything that may be wrong is the fault of others.

With
extreme paranoia it believes that it is the victim of diabolical malice of
Britain, which it spuriously contends wishes to "repossess" and "recolonise"
Zimbabwe, and of whites in general, but especially those who were displaced
from their farms, or are active in commerce and industry.

The catastrophe
of those specious convictions, and of the inability to recognise the
realities, economic and otherwise, is that not only does government fail to
pursue the actions necessary to bring about, and thereafter to entrench,
economic well-being, but that its myopic perspectives continuously drive the
economy further downwards. Worsening this circumstance even more is the
absence of coordination of thought and policy between the president and his
ministers, for he will say one thing, whilst they will say the
opposite.

Equally appalling is that it is clearly evident, from the
extent that actual circumstances are at variance with those contended by the
president, that certain of his ministers, advisors and their personnel
continue to misinform him. Undoubtedly they feed to him that which they
believe he wishes to hear, irrespective of any lack of substance to their
contentions, or that which will, they assume, protect their retention of
their posts.

In his State of the Nation Address, the president
understandably placed some considerable emphasis upon the land reform
programme and upon agriculture, for the agricultural sector was the
country's economic foundation, until government destroyed it, and must be
restored to its former glory if there is to be any prospect of economic
revival.

He suggested that the infamous Constitutional Amendment No 17,
which placed government above the law, has given "finality to the process of
land acquisition", and will enable newly-settled A1 and A2 farmers to "go
about their agricultural production business without legally technical
hitches that obstructed them in the past".

The actualities are that
those so-called "legally technical hitches" accorded former farmers some
limited opportunities of justice, and their removal was tantamount to
legalising the state's unjust expropriations of land. And, as government has
still not issued the new farmers with any form of transferable legal tenure
on the land, be that by way of negotiable and assignable 99-year leases or
otherwise, the new farmers still have no collateral to access necessary
funding.

In addition, with an ongoing, inadequate and non-timeous
availability of inputs, agriculture cannot recover. The president referred
to a $1 trillion facility for inputs now being in place, but that money is
meaningless if the inputs are not available due to foreign currency
constraints or otherwise.

He further stated that he was "also
reliably informed that the entire nation's requirements for seed have now
been met" but, in practice, there is still a widespread shortage of
seed.

The degree to which he has been the victim of disinformation was
also evidenced by his reference to a present availability of tobacco
seedlings, saying "tobacco seedlings point to a crop of between 43 000 and
53 000 hectares".

Unfortunately, seedlings are only indicative of
likely crop size if they have been planted. Their mere existence does not
auger a crop. They must be placed in the ground (in properly prepared
fields), and then must be tended and cared for. And, within the tobacco
industry, informed sources contend that only some 26 000 to 30 000 hectares
are being cultivated this season. A year ago government projected a winter
wheat crop of at least 400 000 tonnes. The president now expects 270 000
tonnes will materialise. But despite years of proven mis-forecasts, the
president continues to accept projections devoid of substance.

It is
intriguing, however, that only nine days after his eulogising the
developments of the agricultural season, he spoke somewhat
differently.

In the second keynote address of the last week, the
president stated that "the future of agriculture will remain severely
constrained as those with implements - maybe the whites - continue to charge
exorbitant and inhibitive hire charges".

Was this possibly the first
seeds of a "cop-out" to explain, at the end of the agricultural season, why
projections have not materialised? After all, present indications are that
it is unlikely that government will be able, with any credibility, to blame
another poor agricultural outturn upon drought.

And who could
possibly be a better scapegoat for blame than the insignificant number of
whites remaining in Zimbabwe. Those whites have been unceremoniously and
unjustly, often violently, displaced from their farms, and in a vast number
of instances been deprived of their tractors, their irrigation equipment,
and their implements, and are now accused of charging exorbitant and
inhibitive hire charges. Even those few still fortunate enough to have some
of their farm equipment, are surely entitled to charges which not only
address the depreciating capital value thereof, but also yield fair return
on the capital involved, that return having to be responsive to an
inflationary environment in which annual inflation exceeds 500%.

For
years government has applied price controls on diverse commodities, driven
by a misguided belief that doing so was protective of consumers. In
reality, it was prejudicial to consumers, for those controls precluded
operational viability for many manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
As a result, immense scarcities prevailed, fuelling black market operations
where the gargantuan higher prices severely worsened the lot of the
consumers.

All the advice of international bodies, of economists, of
the captains of commerce and industry, and of many more, were studiously
ignored by government.

Eventually, however, "crunch time" arrived,
with the vast non-availability of products, collapses of businesses,
resultant unemployment, and other factors driving government into stating,
albeit reluctantly, that price controls would be discontinued and market
related-forces would prevail.

As experienced in numerous other countries
over many years, market forces motivate competition, which contains prices,
with compensatory efforts to enhance productivity and efficiency.

The
change of the government's position on price controls was widely welcomed in
the private sector, restoring an element of the, until then, almost
non-existent business confidence.

This was reinforced by the Minister of
Finance, Herbert Murerwa, who reiterated the intended discontinuance of
price controls, when he presented his 2006 budget. But only a week later,
the president said: "Government will not abdicate its duty to protect
consumers from arbitrary increases of prices of essential
commodities."

He blamed those increases upon "unscrupulous business
people" whom he alleged were "profiteers".

Obviously, facts such as
wage increases of 300% to 500% in the last year, massive increases in
charges by government's parastatals, inevitably necessary, huge exchange
movements and many other cost factors borne by those business people, do not
justify (in the mind of the president) price increases. As a result, the
president claims that "the ever-rising cost of living is due to insensitive
price increases being effected by the manufacturing sector" and that,
therefore, government "cannot protect the people except through the
regulation of the prices of essential commodities".

In one fell swoop,
with his contradiction of his Finance minister's statement, whatsoever
little confidence had been restored to the economy and towards creating an
investment-conducive environment, was immediately obliterated.

Zanu PF feasts as povo wallow in
privation

WE were fascinated to hear Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo
admonishing delegates to the party's beanfeast in Esigodini last weekend not
to eat too much in front of a starving population.

He listed the
"beasts" scheduled for slaughter and the tonnes of maize set aside for
delegates. But he warned against too much gluttony in front of a national
audience suffering unparalleled food shortages and privation. He didn't
actually use the expression made famous by the former British High
Commissioner to Kenya, Sir Edward Clay, about a predatory elite vomiting on
its own shoes, but it sounded similar.

Fifty head of cattle were
slaughtered for the 3 000 delegates (60 per beast). They were also fed with
48 goats, 11 kudu, five reed buck, 17 impala, five buffaloes, 1,10 tonnes of
rice, 60 chickens, 50 kg of wheat, and 11 tonnes of maize meal. And that was
just the first course!

In addition to feasting there was entertainment.
The Sunday Mail told us Nkomo had the delegates "in stitches" when he said:
"I want to take this opportunity to thank the party chairman for his
remarks". That was shortly after giving his remarks.

President Mugabe
also had them rolling in the aisles when he demanded liver rather than
steak. They fell about when he said he was "a very, very good teacher until
I was spoiled by politics".

The rest of the country might not have found
any of this quite so funny!

Muckraker liked the poster which said:
"Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall - and all Blair's horses could not put MDC
back again."

But what happened to "all the king's men"? Did they not play
any role in the MDC's demise?

Another poster said: "Economic
turnaround - none but ourselves."Now that one was really funny!

Many
of those companies that have contributed so notably to our "turnaround" were
anxious to identify themselves with Zanu PF's record. Tel*One's board,
management and staff joined the nation in celebrating Zanu PF's "landslide
victory" in the senate election. Noczim saluted the party's "courageous
leadership" and said it was confident the delegates would emerge with
"decisions and resolutions that expedite our economic
take-off".

Zupco, Zimpapers and Zimpost added their fawning
voices.

Rarely has the case for privatisation and professionalism in
parastatal management been more self-evident. Air Zimbabwe chose to single
out Vice-President Joice Mujuru for congratulation.

"From one high
flyer to another", was their message. This was the same weekend where it was
revealed that Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono had told them he couldn't go
on keeping them airborne with RBZ handouts.

Muckraker would be keen to
know if staff at corporations such as Tel*One were consulted by management
before having their congratulations offered to Zanu PF on its "landslide
victory" in an election where only 19% of voters turned out.

The
Sunday News said in an editorial "inflation-weary consumers need a respite
from greedy business people who are increasing prices in a totally
unsustainable manner". No doubt the paper had Air Zimbabwe, Noczim, Tel*One
and Zimpost in mind!

And yet again we were told Zanu PF would sort
out multiple ownership of farms "once and for all".

Why does the
party think we should believe them this time around? And why does President
Mugabe appear unable to do anything about it?

Mugabe's undiplomatic
remarks about Jan Egeland were described in the official press as "off the
cuff". "Off the wall" would have been a better description! But the
president's indignation was understandable.

Here was somebody who had
been expected to reverse the highly damaging (Anna) Tibaijuka judgement.
That has been the thrust of Zimbabwean diplomacy over several months. Even
Kofi Annan had been dragged into this desperate bid. But the UN declined at
all its various levels to oblige Mugabe.

On the contrary, Egeland
embarrassed the regime by pointing out that Tibaijuka's report was not a
personal view, it was the view of all the UN's experts in the field, that
crimes had been committed in Operation Murambatsvina, and that social
conditions in Zimbabwe represented not just a crisis but a national
"meltdown".

No wonder Mugabe was furious. But that is what happens when
you start to believe your own propaganda. Was it seriously hoped that Annan
would undermine his own special envoy? What sort of delusional thinking was
this?

There was a wonderfully colourful picture on the front page of the
Business Herald on Friday. It showed flower-sellers in Harare's CBD with a
caption saying Zimbabwe expected to earn US$750 million from the sale of cut
flowers to the European Union and other markets this year.

But there
was one thing the Herald forgot to say. The picture of flower-sellers and
their attractive bouquets was taken before Operation Murambatsvina. The
flower-sellers, who had been a feature of Africa Unity Square for nearly a
century, were among the first victims of the brutal crackdown. Nothing
stands there today to entice tourists across from Meikles. It is a barren
spot. It was another Herald illusion!

Australia last week came up with
"new" names of politicians and business executives on its sanctions list. It
was as much comical as it was a worrying reflection of the research capacity
of the Australians. They not only had inexplicable names on their list but
often got dates of birth so wrong you wondered if they wanted to be taken
seriously.

For instance, Tsitsi Muzenda was born almost on the same day
as her late father Simon Muzenda. It was all the more farcical because it is
easy to get these details either on the Internet or by simply asking any
Zimbabwean with something between their ears. Not so with the
Australians.

Eric Bloch was reduced to a boyish 24-year-old. Apparently
he is not complaining about that bit!

A less indulgent inclusion on
the list was Dairibord chief executive Anthony Mandiwanza. He said the
addition of businesspeople to the list was "nonsensical". Despite the fact
that he didn't know the criteria used to draw up the list, he was loud in
his reaction.

"It is a desperate action by the Australian government and
I do not care about my inclusion on the list since we do not do any business
with Australia," declared Mandiwanza with reckless finality.

What
could Australia be desperate about we wonder? And when he says "we do not do
any business with Australia" who is "we"? Mandiwanza and his family?
Mandiwanza and Daribord or Mandiwanza and Zimbabwe? Is this business
exclusivity perhaps a result of the tunnel vision engendered by the Look
East policy? He must start on lessons in Mandarin. Chris Mutsvangwa should
come in handy here.

President Mugabe was equally bitter. He accused
British settlers in Australia of embarking on a "genocidal massacre of
Aborigines, reducing the survivors into hopeless alcoholics and objects of
pity by crushing their spirit".He added with melodramatic lyricism:
"They have destroyed a whole people, just as the Americans used to do with
Red Indians - you must have seen the pictures. But in Australia they
succeeded more than the Americans. Does Australia have a real system of
human rights that can compare with our own system?"

What Mugabe
should be reminded of is that history has since moved on. What was he doing
in the early 1980s in Matabeleland and Midlands with his North Korean
killers? How many innocent Zimbabweans were slaughtered in that "act of
madness"? And how many people either lost their lives or were maimed just to
keep Zanu PF in power in 2000? What system of human rights was he
using?

There were celebrations at Munhumutapa Building last week.
Nathaniel Manheru couldn't hide his glee at discovering that his old
adversary from university days, Trevor Ncube, was on the Australian
sanctions list.

"White fury flattens all," observed Manheru
hilariously.

But then that was not all. His government also couldn't be
outdone by a foreign power. It seized Ncube's passport for as yet unknown
reasons. Here is a rogue government that claims to have brought democracy to
Zimbabwe yet it confiscates citizens' passports unlawfully. Just what is the
operative law that says anybody from the President's Office can seize your
passport?

But these are questions beyond Manheru's evil heart to raise.
We would be expecting him to have a conscience or even to imagine something
like that happening to him. He can't believe it is possible to taste your
own medicine the way Phillip Chiyangwa and James Makamba did after they
voted for those lengthy detentions without trial.

He called the
seizure of Ncube's passport "compulsive patriotism" as if it was a sin for
Zimbabweans to work or stay outside the country. All Zimbabweans in the
diaspora must now view Zimbabwe as the world's last "penal colony" where all
those denied political asylum elsewhere must be banished and denied freedom
of movement without cause.

President Mugabe seems to have suddenly
realised that his government is a failure. After seizing the best land in
the country over the past six years, it has failed to make land "the
economy". Instead we have been humiliated by having to rely on food
donations.

Last week Mugabe acknowledged in Esigodini that there was lack
of planning for the next agricultural season, ostensibly because there were
white farmers resisting land reforms, "often supported by some of us in the
party and government".

"We know every year there is going to be an
agricultural season. Yet year in, year out we are caught flat-footed and
unprepared," lamented Mugabe self-righteously.

Isn't it amazing that
there should be people opposed to land reform in a party that is not known
for independent thought? As for the flat-footed bit, the question is why
hasn't he acted on those failing to deliver inputs to farmers timeously? Is
it not because a fish rots from the head?

He however promised action by
cabinet in two days. This late in the season and he still wants to be taken
seriously!

Herald columnist Campion Mereki says history will never
forgive Zimbabwe's private media for its present actions. He means telling
it like it is.

Does he seriously think history will praise a captive
state media that is not allowed to criticise the government however
disastrous its record? A media that is only free to criticise the
opposition, a media that is completely dishonest about the country's myriad
problems? Why does he think history will reward state eunuchs for failing to
do their duty?

Judging by its op/ed pages on Monday and Tuesday, the
Herald is running out of contributors. Any fool can trot out the childish
rubbish credited to Mereki. And he appears completely ignorant about media
ownership in South Africa. Can't the Herald do better than
this?

Muckraker was intrigued by the news that President Mugabe was
attending the inaugural meeting of a strange outfit called the Perdana
Global Peace Forum in Kuala Lumpur. It transpired that this was the
brainchild of former Malaysian premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Mugabe
and Mohamad appear to have a pact where they agree to attend each other's
meetings. But why should Mugabe be invited to a conference on world peace?
Zimbabwe is a very minor player on the world stage.

Perhaps part of the
answer could be discerned in the forum's agenda. Apart from escalating
terrorism and relentless environmental degradation, the conference would
discuss the systematic violation of human rights.

We hope former
Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim will be among the speakers
together with Gabriel Shumba from Zimbabwe.

Policies that mask and promote
misrule

"A CRITICAL, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood
of any democracy. The press must be free from state
interference."

That was the view of former South African president Nelson
Mandela at a congress of the International Press Institute in 1993. South
Africa then was a year from its first democratic all-race
election.

Zimbabwe was then playing the role of a midwife in the birth of
South Africa as the leader of the Frontline States against apartheid rule in
Pretoria. President Mugabe was the darling of the region and the world as a
champion of the oppressed.

It is a sad irony and an indictment of how
far Mugabe has regressed since then that Mandela's words were this week
quoted to President Thabo Mbeki by the same institute to remind Mugabe of
just how far from the path of justice he has strayed. This followed the
seizure by Immigration officials last week of Zimbabwe Independent and
Standard publisher Trevor Ncube's passport after he was put on a list of
people whose movements should be restricted because they "threaten national
interests".

Not that Mugabe ever laid claim to such lofty liberal ideals
like a free press or freedom of movement. But the metamorphosis from a
liberation war hero to a paranoid dictator living in a cordon of military
security has been spectacular. That transformation has been characterised by
a systematic crackdown on dissent within his own party, opposition parties,
civics and the press since Independence in 1980. His paranoia and fear have
grown in inverse proportion to the deteriorating social conditions of
Zimbabweans as the economy has imploded. As his failures have become legion,
so has his anger against those exposing the emperor's
nakedness.

President Mugabe promulgated the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act in 2002 making it mandatory for journalists to be
accredited and media houses to be registered by government before they could
operate. The idea was to strike fear into the hearts of reporters and
publishers so that his calamitous misrule could not be exposed.

There
is always the threat of being denied accreditation hanging over journalists
like the sword of Damocles if they dare speak ill of Mugabe. By refusing to
register, the Daily News gave a hostage to fortune, making itself the first
casualty of that law in 2003. Four more papers were to follow in quick
succession as the economic meltdown accelerated and discontent among
Zimbabweans mounted. Foreign journalists were deported in flagrant violation
of court orders.

But despite this crackdown the situation appears to be
getting worse. While Mugabe's position in the party and government is
assured, at least from outside, this has not been on the back of improved
performance on the governance or economic fronts. The pretence to political
tolerance witnessed in recent elections is more to do with complacency in
the face of a fragmenting opposition than a deliberate widening of the
democratic space to accommodate divergent views.

In practice, we are
moving in the opposite direction. Mugabe appears to believe that the best
way to deal with the country's problems is to lock up everybody, to
transform the country into one big prison. The decision to seize the
passports of vocal Zimbabweans perceived as enemies of the state is meant to
intimidate and "contain" the wrong information that "tarnishes the image of
the country". After all it is easier to seize the passport of a returning
citizen at the port of entry than to build a legal case to shut down a
newspaper.

Few people will dare to lose that valuable document which can
be seized without the need to explain. Government columnists have confirmed
it is meant to have a chilling effect on all critics of the regime. It is
the most serious assault yet on the rights of Zimbabweans wherever they are
so long as they one day wish to come back home or leave the country to visit
family or friends.

The law is all the more devastating in that it
hits everyone, not just journalists or those involved in the newspaper
industry. Business executives, ordinarily timid in the face of a government
exercising paternalistic patronage over all, can now be trusted to die a
natural death - that is, never to utter a negative word on government
policies and human rights abuses.

Already there is a dangerous
pretence in government and business circles that is gaining currency, that
those who point out shortcomings in government in fact create them. It is
not uncommon to be admonished by business executives against tarnishing the
country's image by, for instance, reporting political violence and thus
inhibiting tourism.

In a cynical twist of irony, the "patriots" are those
who externalise foreign currency, those who smuggle basic foodstuffs out of
the country and those who sell publicly subsidised agricultural fuel on the
black market. It is those, in short, who are not too fastidious about
ethical conduct in business or in the use of public resources who shall be
allowed to keep their passports for as long as they like. Such is the
perversity of government policies that mask and promote misrule.

Zim Independent Letters

Seizure was churlish, pointless Mr
President

Dear Mr Mugabe, CONFISCATING the passport of Zimbabwe
Independent publisher Trevor Ncube was not only churlish, pointless,
heartless and singularly childish, but your continued harassment of these
independent media owners is an insult to all those journalists who put you
in power in the first place.

I am talking about those many journalists,
me included, who suffered the wrath and ignominy of Ian Smith's government
in their attempt to tell the truth to the world about the iniquities of his
regime and the logic of installing a democratically-elected
government.

Smith gagged, banned and harassed the press. He put local
and foreign journalists in jail. As a representative of UPI, BBC and NBC, I
was arrested 17 times in three months, but at least I had no doubt that I
was right and the Rhodesian police and intelligence services were
wrong.

Now, you are doing exactly what Smith did. Only worse. Your
megalomania will result in more Zimbabweans dying at your hands than at
Smith's. Your treatment of the press in your country is reminiscent of that
meted out by the apartheid regime in South Africa in the
1980s.

Your shutting down newspapers reminds me of watching the SA
security police storm into editor Harvey Tyson's office with court orders to
close down The Star.

Your harassment of journalists reminds me of
the conversation I used to have with New Nation editor Zwelakhe Sisulu about
how tough it was trying to run a newspaper under a banning
order.

You have proved yourselves as bad as the regime you toppled.
And every bit as bad as the apartheid government of which you were so
critical.

But worst of all, you have insulted all those journalists
who risked imprisonment and severe harassment to tell the truth to the
world.

You have insulted the memory of courageous journalists such as
Don Royale of Associated Press and George Clay of NBC and countless others
who died in Africa trying to tell the world of the disastrous legacy of
colonialism.

Ncube is now stuck in Zimbabwe, unable to return to
South Africa to run the Mail & Guardian - a newspaper he owns and loves.
And which he has raised to new heights and standards of
journalism.

These childish efforts of yours might have some effect on
twisting the truth in your own state media and keeping the truth from the
independent papers also owned by Ncube. But, there is nothing on earth you
can do to prevent, even in the slightest, media criticism from outside of
your borders.

The Mail & Guardian is a world-class newspaper with
enormous integrity and stature. It will not, I am sure, cease its continued
exposé of your megalomania. And alongside it you can expect every other
South African newspaper from the Sunday Times to the Sowetan, The Star, The
Sun, Beeld, Rapport, Business Day and the rest, to keep telling the world
how you have failed your people, your media and those journalists who, when
you were fighting for the freedom of your land, you called your
friends.

We are no longer your friends because we just don't like
people who lie to us.

Chris Moerdyk,

Foreign
correspondent,

Zimbabwe 1960s.

-------

Chi-Town, Harare 2
sides of same coin

BOTH the Harare municipality and capital city are
on the edge of the precipice.

I must say I fully support the call for
Chitungwiza (Chi-Town) council officials to be fired. But since Chitungwiza
is a dormitory town of Harare, it is equally well-meaning to also fire the
recalcitrant Harare municipality executive - the town clerk, acting city
treasurer and their immediate subordinates.

We do not need
reminding that Harare and Chitungwiza are two sides of one coin, regardless
of political inclinations. You thus cannot throw away the king-side of the
coin and retain the tail-side.

A drive in and around the city will
bring to the fore the dirt that has become the order of the day. Since these
top men took office, it seems they embarked on a mission to ensure that
Harare as a city ground to a halt. Here are a few reasons why:

*
Potholes gape at you wherever you drive like never before. A good example
can be found at the corner of Harare Street and Samora Machel Avenue, along
Speke Avenue between Copacabana and Zupco bus terminus, along Cameron Street
near Zimbank Westend branch, at the corner of Robert Mugabe and Enterprise
road, and at the roundabout along Charter road and Luck Street;

*
Sewage effluent is evident in most of our high density areas such as Glen
View, Budiriro, Highfield, Mbare and Dzivaresekwa among others. No wonder
dysentry broke out recently in Harare;

* There is no adequate
street lighting, hence people are relieving themselves in the streets at
night. Our trees have been turned into toilets.

There is no sense
whatsoever in decorating First Street with Christmas lights when half the
city roads is without proper street lights;

* Uncollected bins and
rubbish in our environs is the order of the day; and

* Garbage is
accumulating in backyard streets within the CBD, a glaring example being
Albion Street behind OK Express and TM Hyper. Some termini like the one
along Albion Street behind OK and east of Rezende Street have no toilets,
effectively meaning commuter omnibus crews are left to relieve themselves in
the street.

The sky-walk bridge is again piling-up with human waste.
To top it all, unhygienic practices go unchecked in our supermarket
butcheries as no proper health inspections are carried out as in the
past.

Now to the turnaround strategy. It is nauseating that the
turnaround is being stalled while the two men seem to be quick to sign
cheques for a trip to Moscow. And the coup de grace of all time is that
ratepayers are being asked to pay more rates while council workers are
denied their cost of living adjustments.

What a very raw
deal!

City Worker,

Harare.

--------

Signs
visible for all to see

WHENEVER someone who is in power wants to
carry on doing something that they know is illegal, they start by
complicating simple things.

In Zimbabwe, by establishing a bicameral
legislative system which has complex procedures with numerous hidden points
of access, those in power continue to deny ordinary Zimbabweans their right
to fight minority rule.

Since a bicameral legislature is not necessary
for representational purposes, it is acceptable to assume that this has been
done to remove any prospects of rule by the majority and to lessen the
representation of the preferences of the mass public.

There is
nothing wrong with the members of the same family being interested in the
same profession. Zimbabweans are a civil, peace-loving people who appreciate
the efforts of a set of brothers or a couple wanting to improve the
well-being of the people by standing in elections.

When voted for,
these individuals then work very hard and diligently stand for the best
interests of their people. What is taking place in Zimbabwe, however, is
somewhat different from what the reasonable mass public thought was going to
happen after 1980.

Historically, a bicameral legislature would
represent somewhat different socio-economic groups. Now with "clans and
families" having taken over the senate, we wonder if this has been done to
protect the interests of a certain group of individuals keen to bleed
Zimbabwe dry.

There is nothing that the senate is going to change. In
fact, more could be done with a simple, straightforward and transparent
unicameral parliament in which decisions on what to do with the homeless and
unemployed are reached more quickly.

This however had to be done
away with since it was less costly and was threatening to bring about
accountability. Having said this, a certain group of individuals who have
been faithful to their earthly master had to be assured of positions thereby
creating a system whereby their hold on power is maintained and that the
same position becomes an inheritance for the same "clans and families" in
coming generations. If this sounds a bit far-fetched for some, can you
convince us otherwise?

Lastly, if there is anyone who thinks that
Zimbabwe is their own private enterprise, let it be known that no business
or non-profit corporation would put up with two boards of
directors.

Morgan,

UK.

--------

Allow rebels to
thrive

I REFER to the front-page story "MDC banishes rebels",
(Zimbabwe Independent, December 2).

The word "rebel" is value-laden,
indicating that anyone in that category does not accept the general trend of
the group. Classically, in the modern global village, teenagers are rebels,
rebelling against the old-fashioned, stuffy culture of their parents and
teachers.

This is a pointer to the positive side of rebellion. It
challenges the status quo and asserts the power of the challengers as being
equal to, or greater than those challenged: youth versus old-age, growth
versus decay.

In the MDC, the word "rebel" is used to refer to any
member of the non-sycophant group: any member who challenges the status quo
within the party. It would be wise for the sycophants to study history and
understand that any status quo which remains unchallenged will
die.

Look at all the lost civilisations and languages of the world
which could not, or would not adapt to changing
circumstances.

Let rebels in both parties - ruling party and the
opposition - continue to challenge the mummification of their
party.

Perhaps then our nation will be able to shake off the rigor
mortis paralysing us right now, and we will be able to move forward, at
last!

Long live rebels!

Tawanda
Matasa,

Budiriro.

--------

Mystery is in
profit

I READ on BBC Africa Online that Jan Egeland is "puzzled" by
Zimbabwe's rejection of the UN's offer of tents.

The reason is
actually very simple. Some months ago various members of the Zanu PF
hierarchy bought the country's largest brick-making enterprise.

That is
why they are insisting on brick houses, in order to make themselves a lot of
money in scarce foreign currency - out of the UN.

So they will
actually profiteer from the destruction of all the poor people's
houses.

Possibly the UN office in Harare could point out to Egeland
that there is no mystery at all if you are in possession of the
facts?

Charles Frizell,

UK.

-----

Consider
inflation for workers' sake

I HAVE felt compelled to write on behalf
of several wrongly dismissed and retrenched workers in Zimbabwe.

It
is common cause that labour disputes are taking so many years to resolve
through the courts.

When a labour dispute is finally resolved,
say after two years, the employer is obliged to pay the employee backpay
calculated to include interest at the statutory rate of 30%
pa.

The salary and benefit arrears at the end of two years are
completely eroded by the rampant inflation currently running at 502%
pa.

In the meantime, and during the two years, a shrewd employer,
especially in the financial service sector, simply makes provisions for
backpay and invests the funds in the money market at a rate of say 200% pa
making an interest margin of 170% pa (200 - 30%).

If the amount
owed to the employee is estimated to be around $500 million for instance,
the employer invests this amount in the money market over a two-year period
at 200% pa, meaning the employer will earn, including the principal amount,
$4,5 billion using simple interest.

After paying the employee $845
million less tax, the employer earns a net investment income of $3,66
billion.

In normal financial transactions, interest is compounded for
periods ranging from one to 12 months and in this case, the prejudice to the
employee is even greater.

In the current economic environment in
Zimbabwe, where companies are downsizing or winding up, leading to
retrenchment of workers, retrenchments or dismissals of employees have
become a lucrative source of investment income for employers especially in
the financial sector.

The Minister of Finance, Dr Hertbert Murerwa,
in his 2006 budget statement announced a number of tax relief measures to
cushion employees in general, and retrenchees in particular, in view of the
hyperinflation obtaining in the country.

While welcoming his tax
concessions, I cannot understand why he, and the Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs minister are enriching employers at the expense of
employees in as far as payment of backpay at the current statutory interest
rate of 30% pa is concerned.

Furthermore, in the budget statement,
Murerwa proposed to empower the Zimra commissioner general to charge
market-related interest rates on unpaid penalties with effect from January
but did not review the statutory interest rate of 30% pa charged on unpaid
salary and benefit arrears to market rates.

The plight of employees
is further worsened in that the benefit arrears attract what is deemed
income benefit tax which is charged by Zimra at the rate of 16%
pa.

Interest rates have a strong relationship with inflation and as
such, the statutory interest rate currently at 30% pa should be reviewed on
a regular basis and in line with annual inflation trends in order not to
prejudice employees.

Where interest rates are negative such as in
Zimbabwe, employers will drag labour disputes for as long as possible,
knowing very well that by the time these arrears/packages are payable to the
employee, they are firstly completely eroded by inflation and secondly, the
employer will have earned substantial investment income from the funds to
pay employees' salary and benefit arrears and still make a handsome profit
on the invested funds.

This statutory interest rate at 30% pa is
actually an incentive to employers to delay payment to employees as much as
possible.

In my view, it is immoral for the government to enrich
employers at the expense of employees.

In the interest of all
workers in Zimbabwe and social justice at the work place, I call upon the
two ministries concerned to review the statutory interest rate which
currently stands at 30% pa in line with inflation trends as a matter of
urgency.

Disgruntled
Employee,

Harare.

------

Sad tale of a traumatised Zimbabwe
boy

IT was 1984, in a small mining town in the Midlands province of
Zimbabwe. A small boy in grade five, aged 11 years, was crying, frightened
and praying, whilst hiding under a bed in a dark room.

He was crying
and frightened because the rowdy people who were singing, dancing and
marching outside - at nearly midnight - had been going around the town
burning down houses.

These people were Zanu PF youths that had been
burning down houses and property that belonged to Ndebele-speaking people in
the town, accusing them of being the opposition PF-Zapu
supporters.

The boy even witnessed the body of a Ndebele-speaking man
who had been tied onto a railway line and was subsequently crushed by a
train during the night.

He was praying because he was of Shona
ethnicity, and was begging God to make Zanu PF win in the following year's
parliamentary election, as a win for PF-Zapu could mean retaliation by
Ndebeles, and as a Shona he was afraid that his family could be
killed.

Such was the scenario in 1984, and I was that
boy.

Of course, the elections came and went and Zanu PF
won.

In 1987, the two parties signed a Unity Accord, but the trauma
that I had experienced as a child was to be re-lived some years down the
line.

Between 2000 and 2002, I was to witness the burning down of
more houses belonging to opposition supporters by Zanu PF
youths.

However, this time around, instead of a dead body, I
witnessed people being beaten up and left for dead.

I witnessed houses being razed to
the ground, whilst fathers, mothers and their children wept
uncontrollably.

I have at least four families of my relatives who
have been living in the open since June, exposed to the vagaries of the
weather - including the persistent rains, no sanitary and health facilities,
shelter or food.

The children are not going to school and are
constantly sick.

Having been a witness to Zanu PF atrocities for so
long and from a tender age, why is the world still sitting by and debating
whether there are human rights violations in Zimbabwe or not?

Who
are these people who call themselves academics who appear on national
television talking about cultural and media imperialism? Forget about what
the transnational news agencies, private media, academics and politicians
are saying.

I might not know much about the real reasons why our
country's inflation is one of the highest in the world, why the people of
Zimbabwe are starving, and why there is a shortage of nearly every essential
commodity.

I do not know why US president George W Bush and UK
premier Tony Blair are so interested in our country.

I cannot
even tell who was more cruel: President Robert Mugabe, Adolf Hitler, Josef
Stalin or Saddam Hussein, because I was not a first-hand witness to these
other men's so-called cruelty.

Nevertheless, what I know - as a
witness - is that Mugabe has failed us, and action has to be taken today to
remove him from power and bring him to justice.

Simbarashe
Mutasa,

Kwekwe.

--------

Why is govt mum on SA spy
saga?

IT never ceases to amaze me why our government is so
desperate.

Here is a spy working for the South African government, for
obviously anti-Zimbabwe reasons. He is caught, arrested, but subsequently
released at the request of the South African
government.

Meanwhile, his Zimbabwean accomplices are still behind
bars, and with obviously no hope of an early release.

South
Africa's Intelligence minister even comes to fetch him, not to have him
incarcerated in his home country, but to continue his work -
spying.

Our own Intelligence minister is even at hand to see him off
- all smiles, and probably wishing him many more years of
spying.

The state media is actually delighted that the South African
government has said that relations between the two countries will not be
strained as a result of the arrest. Gosh!

Who was aggrieved here,
South Africa or Zimbabwe?

Is it for the South African government to
determine the future of the two countries' relations because of this spying
incident?

Is the Zimbabwean government so desperate for friends that
they apologise even if they are the ones slapped in the face?

It
is like apologising to the man you have caught in bed with your
wife!

Today we are crying because of the so-called machinations of
the West who, a few years ago, were our best buddies.

We never
criticised them for anything, but even vigorously embraced their economic
policies, such as Esap which rendered thousands of Zimbabweans jobless and
destitute. Years later when relations go sour, the government starts
recalling the West's "evils" of the 1990s.

Are we to expect the same
as regards South Africa?

The government even had to wait until the
Western governments severed relations with Zimbabwe before speaking
out.

A few years later when relations have soured, the government
will start recalling how in 2005, the South African government sent spies to
Zimbabwe, and how that government infiltrated and tried to destroy this
country.